Terrified mum spends night thinking a ghost is in cot with her baby - before discovering husband's mistake

Maritza Cibuls, 32, from Illinois, spent a sleepless night convinced there was a ghost in her baby's cot with him before realising the next day her husband Corey (also pictured) had forgotten to put a mattress protector on the bed, meaning a sticker with a baby's face was showing through. Her Facebook post about the incident went viral.
Maritza Cibuls with husband Corey, their two-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son (Maritza Cibuls/Supplied)

By Charlie Duffield

A mother-of-two spent a sleepless night convinced there was a “ghost” baby in bed with her son before uncovering the truth the following day - and realising her husband was to blame.

Maritza Cibuls, 32, from Illinois, spotted the infant ghoul’s face staring straight at her through her 18-month-old son’s baby monitor after she put him to bed in his crib.

“I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I tried to ignore it but it was really starting to creep me out,” Maritza told Yahoo Style UK.

“My husband, Corey, was working that night so I was even more freaked out. I sent the picture to him, my mom and best friend - they all had different opinions.”

Maritza Cibuls, 32, from Illinois, spent a sleepless night convinced there was a ghost in her baby's cot with him before realising the next day her husband Corey (also pictured) had forgotten to put a mattress protector on the bed, meaning a sticker with a baby's face was showing through. Her Facebook post about the incident went viral.
Maritza posted the image containing the spooky "apparition" on Facebook, where it was shared hundreds of thousands of times (Maritza Cibuls/Supplied)

Maritza snuck into the room with a torch while her son was still sleeping to try and catch a glimpse of the “ghost”.

“I tried to be as quiet as possible and hide the light from my flashlight as much as I could,” she said.

“I didn’t see anything unusual in the crib at all. I was trying to feel around to see if there was any wetness - we thought there might be some drool on the sheet - but I didn’t feel any.

“I told myself maybe it was just a stain on the sheet and left the room. I probably went in there about three more times throughout the night.”

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Maritza couldn’t sleep or relax without understanding what the strange apparition was.

She said: “Some part of me does believe in ghosts... but I just tried to tell myself there was some logical explanation.”

The mum, who also has a two-year-old daughter, spent the night with the baby monitor pressed against her face, with the full volume and brightness turned all the way up.

“I kept opening my eyes to check to make sure the ‘ghost’ wasn’t moving. Then when I would start to finally relax, my son would roll over and I’d be on high alert again. Every time I checked on him, though, he seemed completely fine,” she said.

The next morning her mind was finally put at ease when she realised exactly what had happened after going into the room, opening the blinds and checking the mattress in the cot.

Maritza Cibuls, 32, from Illinois, spent a sleepless night convinced there was a ghost in her baby's cot with him before realising the next day her husband Corey (also pictured) had forgotten to put a mattress protector on the bed, meaning a sticker with a baby's face was showing through. Her Facebook post about the incident went viral.
The source of the spooky face soon became apparent when she pulled back the sheet the next day (Maritza Cibuls/Supplied)

“Immediately, it was so obvious there was something underneath the sheet. I pulled the sheet off and saw a giant baby face printed on the sticker,” she said.

Maritza had never seen the sticker through the sheet before because she had always used a mattress protector.

She explained: “My husband, Corey, changed the sheets the other night while I changed my son, who had woken up crying and wet. But I made him do it in the dark so we didn’t shock my son and wake him up completely.

“Apparently, he didn’t think to put another mattress protector back on.”

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“When I told my husband he forgot he was just like ‘So?’ And when I told him what had happened, he just laughed. It was just so unexpected to both of us,” she added.

Maritza shared the hilarious story and creepy image of the baby “ghost” in a Facebook post, with thousands of people expressing their appreciation.

At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 286,000 times.

In reference to her husband’s mistake, she joked: “I could kill him.” (Although...that might invite another ghost into the house).

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