Meath couple celebrate after baby 'born beside the Christmas tree and just in time for Santa'
It is a busy New Year in one household after they had a baby boy arrive beside the Christmas tree in his family home just in time for Santa Claus.
“I was eight days overdue and didn’t want to miss Christmas with our other boys,” said Lisa O’Donoghue who now has four sons after baby Conor arrived on December 23.
He did not wait for the ambulance to arrive before making his way into the world and was delivered into the waiting arms of his proud dad Brian.
Lisa, who is a nurse, said: “It is not our first time waiting for a baby at Christmas time.
Tiernan was born on the 22nd December which was his due date and we made it to the hospital with him.
As well as six-year-old Tiernan, the couple also have Oisin (aged 11) and Cathal (aged 8) and Lisa said with this baby, “there was no move on him at all.
"He was due the 15th of December so we were getting closer and closer to Christmas and I didn’t want to miss Christmas with the other boys so I was hoping he would either come before Christmas or after.”
Her wish came true when she went into labour at home in Bettystown, Co. Meath, around 4pm on the 23rd.
It was agreed she would stay at home until the contractions were five minutes apart.
“We rang the midwife at 9pm and said to expect me sometime during the night.”
Lisa lay on the couch in the sitting room and when Brian went to help her up an hour later, “I rang the maternity unit back and said I wouldn’t mind a bit of gas and air and the midwife said to come on ahead in.’
“Brian helped me up off the couch and the minute I stood up the contractions just hit me one after the other.”
“It was just like I needed to push straight away. It was unbelievable, it literally just took seconds.”
She told Brian to phone for an ambulance and they put the call on speaker.
While Brian gathered towels and a shoe lace, Lisa was moments from delivering her baby.
She said:
Three pushes later Brian caught the baby, he was delivered in the sitting room, beside the Christmas tree.
It was just 10 minutes since they made the call for the ambulance and five minutes later the ambulance arrived.
Brian was warned by the ambulance service that the baby was going to be slippy when he was born and to be sure he caught it. Lisa said: “he was waiting for the baby like he was waiting for a rugby ball, he was like a quarter back.”
“He tied the cord off with the shoe lace until the ambulance arrived and he dried off the baby. The baby arrived in his waters, which is meant to be a sign of a lucky baby.”
When Brian, who is a Garda stationed in Santry, Dublin, rubbed down the baby, he began breathing and let out a cry.
Brian said: “When he first came out, he wasn’t crying, I expected him to start crying immediately.”
“After dabbing his face down with the towel, he started crying and I was thank God for that. I never wanted to hear him scream so much in all my life.”
Lisa said Brian was a great support, “I would not have been able to do it without him.”
Brian said Lisa, “is wonderful and I am so proud of her.” They both thanked the paramedics Ben and Ciaran and were delighted to be able to return home on Christmas Eve with their new baby.
Brian said: “He was born beside the Christmas tree and just in time for Santa.”
