Memorable DAYS Baby-Swap Tales

STOLEN IDENTITY: John Thomas Brady Rock The Cradle: On June 9, 2000, Hope gave birth to who she believed was her second son with Bo, who they named John Thomas (J.T. for short). Stefano suspected that he was the true father, as he had been intimate with Hope while she was brainwashed and believed herself to be Princess Gina, and sensed an opportunity when he met Dr. Rolf’s troubled, pregnant niece, Marlo Ungerschterner. He persuaded Marlo to offer her baby to Lexie and Abe, who were looking to adopt after protracted fertility struggles — but Stefano actually masterminded a switch with Rolf’s help, so Hope and Bo went home with the wrong baby (Marlo’s son, who Rolf and Stefano ensured was born on the same day), and Hope’s newborn went home with the unsuspecting Carvers, who dubbed him Isaac. Back In Your Arms Again: Shortly after giving birth, Marlo was killed during an angry confrontation with Rolf. In August, Hope and Bo were rocked to learn that J.T. had fetal alcohol syndrome (due to Marlo’s irresponsible behavior while expecting), which the Bradys chalked up to Hope-as-Gina’s boozing. The following month, a DNA test indicated that the biological father of Hope’s son was actually John. In March 2001, the bio dad of Marlo’s baby, Glen, arrived in Salem with his wife, Barb, and sought to claim his son, giving Lexie major anxiety. She enlisted Brandon’s help in swapping Isaac’s DNA test with J.T.’s, confident that since there would be no DNA match between J.T. and Glen, he wouldn’t be able to take Isaac from her. But due to the earlier baby switch, Glen’s DNA was, of course, a match with Isaac’s, so in May, Stefano was forced to confess what he had done to his devastated daughter. Despite Lexie’s closeness to Hope, she was frantic to hold on to Isaac and kept mum. Barb became privy to the truth about the babies and extorted Lexie in exchange for her silence. Finally, in January 2002, new paternity tests revealed to Bo and Hope that J.T. was actually Glen and Marlo’s biological son, and they realized that a switch had occurred. John (who at the time everyone still thought had sired Hope’s son) and Marlena secretly ran a DNA test on Isaac, which confirmed that Hope gave birth to him. “Hope, Isaac is yours,” Marlena told her in February. In March, Hope decided to fight the Carvers for custody of Isaac just as Abe realized his wife had known about the baby switch for months. A heavy-hearted Hope had to surrender custody of J.T. to Barb and Glen in April; they moved away to Chicago. In May, Abe thwarted Lexie’s plans to flee with Isaac and helped Bo and Hope secure custody of the child, who the Bradys named Beauregard Isaac Theo Brady (Zack for short). Later, they found out Bo was his biological father. Tragically, Zack was killed in 2006.

STOLEN IDENTITY: Sydney DiMera Rock The Cradle: Nicole miscarried EJ’s baby in November 2008, but concealed the loss from him in a desperate bid to hang on to their relationship. At the same time, Sami was secretly carrying EJ’s child. In January 2009, Nicole met Mia McCormick — who was pregnant by Chad — and concocted a wild plan to pay Mia off in exchange for her child, then swap Mia’s baby with Sami’s. Both Sami and Mia gave birth late in the month (to Sydney and Grace, respectively), and with a little help from shady Dr. Baker, Nicole passed off Sami’s daughter as her own, while a none-the-wiser Sami went home with Grace. At first, Nicole’s machinations seemed to go off without a hitch, and she happily tied the knot with EJ in April. But things took a solemn turn when, on June 9, Grace’s young life was taken by bacterial meningitis. Sami was devastated by the death of “her” child. Stefano got wise to what Nicole had done but promised her that EJ would never find out. Then, in October, Chad learned that Mia had given birth to his child and given the tot to Nicole. EJ was livid when he found out that Nicole had deceived him about Sydney’s true identity and evicted her from the DiMera mansion. Back In Your Arms Again: In September, Rafe found out about Nicole’s miscarriage and it dawned on him that she may have stolen Sami’s baby. He did some digging and finally, in November, he obtained DNA proof that Sydney was Sami’s biological daughter. Aware that Rafe was about to bust her, Nic ran to Stefano, who put out a hit on Rafe. But EJ put a stop to that, and Rafe gave Sami the shock of her life when he informed her that she was Sydney’s mother. On November 17, Rafe placed Sydney in a jubilant Sami’s arms, a stunned EJ found out that he was Sydney’s biological father, after all, and Nicole was arrested.