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Newton elementary school principal delivers wife's baby on first day of school

By Laura Paine/Staff Writer Wicked Local Newton

Posted Sep 08, 2010 @ 01:51 PM

Last update Sep 14, 2010 @ 02:43 PM Newton ² 

Horace Mann Elementary School Principal Mark Nardelli expected his third child to comequickly, but he never expected he would deliver her in the family minivan.

 Nardelli helped his overdue wife, Christine Dardia, deliver their third daughter, Alora, in the

 breakdown lane of Route 128 on Sept. 8 around 2 a.m. He said that after his wife woke him upfrom a deep sleep around 1 a.m. he was disoriented, but quickly called his neighbors to watch

their two daughters, packed up the van and headed toward Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

³I was very nervous right off the bat that we weren¶t going to make it,´ Nardelli said. ³Our second baby came pretty quick, and I had a feeling we could still make it, but I wasn¶t

confident.´

He and Dardia were not more than 10 minutes from their Waltham house when she began havingcontractions close to two minutes apart. Nardelli called 911 and spoke with State Police who told

him to pull over, but Dardia wanted to get to the hospital. Two minutes or so later, she asked himto pull over. Nardelli called Emergency again, but knew paramedics would not make it in time to

deliver the baby.

³I got the blanket in the back of the car, moved her seat way back and it really happenedamazingly fast,´ he said. ³There was a clear shift, a thinking of hopefulness and being terrified at

the same time. When we realized we weren¶t going to get there and the paramedics weren¶tgoing to be there on time, I was calm and knew we could do [it].´

Alora Grace weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces when she was born. Nardelli said she had her first

checkup and is doing very well.

³Everybody is terrific,´ he said. ³Mom is doing well and getting more sleep than sheanticipated.´

 Nardelli did attend the first day of school, but missed the second day when the next group of 

kindergarteners would begin the school year. When he returned for the third day of school, thechildren said they had seen him on the news and were very excited.

³[They] asked about the baby¶s name and how she was doing,´ he said. ³They made me cardsand are very cute.´

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At the first School Committee meeting on Sept. 14, Superintendent David Fleishman updated themembers about the birth.

³It really shows the roles of the principal are so varied,´ he quipped. ³They were racing to the

hospital, they did not make it and Mark was there, delivering a child. He did it in a SpongeBob

 blanket. We congratulate Mark on that.´

Fleishman further joked he believed the reason it all happened was due to Nardelli following the

speed limit.

Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.Copyright 2010 Newton TAB. Some rights reserved