A NEW dad proposed to his partner with the help of his baby son who was born 14 weeks prematurely.

Arly Harrington was born on October 6, three months before his due date, in Southampton Hospital weighing just one kilo before being transferred to the maternity unit in Poole Hospital.

But the parents, from Bournemouth Road in Poole, had a Christmas to remember after Karl Harrington, 28, warehouse manager for Extracair, wrapped a ring in baby boy Arly’s blanket for his partner, Jessica Lee, 23, to find.

Karl said: “I’m quite a shy person so I wasn’t sure how to propose. So I popped the ring in with Arly and covered it up so (Jessica) could find it that way.”

“I went to get changed and when I came back Karl told me to change his nappy,” Jessica, who works in a nursery, added.

“I said ‘no, you do it it’s Christmas morning’, but he refused so I removed the cover and saw the ring box. I didn’t want to touch it, I was too scared!”

All the nurses on the ward were in on the plan, and Karl said he was under strict instructions to propose before the nightshift team went home.

Marianne White, a sister on the ward, said: “It’s a long journey and it tests your relationship, that’s why it’s so exciting to have an engagement.

“The night staff and the day staff were involved and it felt like we were involved as a family.”

During the pregnancy, the couple had to sign papers saying that their son might not survive, which they said was the “hardest part.”

Not long after signing the papers, Jessica had to put her gowns on and be taken away for an emergency C-section.

Karl continued: “When they’re that small there’s loads of wires and beeps going off. Every time it flashed, I was calling the nurses, they had to tell me to shut up a lot.”

Arly is still in hospital, and Jessica said it’s always hard being away from him. They are hoping to bring him home early in the new year.

“He’s a very demanding little boy,” she added. “He’s a fighter, he had to have an operation in Southampton because he had a feeding tube go through his stomach.

“So he’s got a large scar across the whole of his stomach, but the next day he was right as rain.”

Speaking on what it meant top have Arly involved in the engagement, Jessica said it was really special, and told her mum that Arly had proposed to her.