This Illinois Family Has Dressed Their Babies in the Same Post-Birth Outfit for Nearly 60 Years

On Nov. 4, Eli Demchak became the latest family member to sport a little blue number worn by seven infants before him in a family tradition that goes back nearly 60 years.

Mark and Kimberly Demchak, both 29, wrapped their new baby boy in a light blue, two-piece set, shortly after Eli was born at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital. Just a few weeks earlier, the couple learned that the outfit was extra special to Kimberly’s family.

“Kimberly’s father, Doug, was born in the same hospital that Eli was, so the little blue outfit was bought by his parents,” Mark tells PEOPLE of Kimberly’s father Doug Walton, and Walton’s parents Richard Walton and Geraldine Walton. “[Doug] went home in that little blue outfit and its been passed down to eight different boys in the family.”

It was Richard who first purchased the outfit as he and Geraldine prepared to welcome Doug, born in 1959. Geraldine thought the outfit was “cute” and ended up dressing all three of her son’s — Doug, Phillip, and Brian — in it when they were born.

“Then the outfit just sort of got handed down to the next generation,” Mark tells PEOPLE. “I thought it was really sweet. My family doesn’t really have a tradition like that so I thought it was pretty cool.”

Along with Doug and his two brothers, Kimberly’s brother, Jason, wore the outfit, along with three of her cousins and now her son. In total, eight baby boys in the family have worn the outfit since 1959.

Mark says he and Kimberly didn’t even know about the tradition until about three weeks before Eli’s birth, when Doug shared the story with them.

“They’ve been holding onto it for awhile, its been in a little zip-lock back,” Mark says of Doug and Doug’s wife, Laurie. “I think they were expecting us to have a child at some point. If we have another boy, or somebody has a child in the next couple years, we’ll do the same thing.”

Mark says Eli looks adorable in the “little track suit.” And although he thought the story was sweet, he never expected the family’s tradition to garner so much attention, he says.

“It’s somehow stayed together in a plastic baggie for 60 years,” Mark gushes. “They’ve done a good job of preserving it.”

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