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at St. Catharines General Hospital. Samantha and her husband Kevin had to pull into the TSC parking lot in Grimsby, where their son was born. Despite the urgency of the situation, the Smithville family of three report that all is well.
By Tristan Marks
NewsNow
He just couldn’t wait to come into the world.
Kellan Long, born Sunday, Dec. 6, 8 lbs, shortly after 10 p.m., decided that he would not wait for his parents to make the long trip from their home in Smithville to St. Catharines General Hospital.
Instead, in what his mom and dad both described as a Christmas miracle, Kellan was born healthy and hale in the parking lot of Grimsby’s TSC store.
The newborn is Kevin and Samantha Long’s third child. Samantha explained this might have been a factor as to why it was so hard to know when to leave for the hospital.
“I was having contractions all day, but no big ones,” she explained.
“It was hard to tell if I was in labour, apparently third pregnancies are like that.”
She only knew he was coming when she had a sudden, major contractions late in the evening. So with only that brief warning, Samantha and her husband got to their car and rushed for the St. Catharines hospital – their only option with the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital’s obstetrics ward closed.
The couple only barely made it to Hwy. 8 when Samantha started going into labour. Kevin pulled over in the only available space he could think of, TSC’s parking lot.
“We really had nothing we could do, so we just pealed into the TSC,” Kevin said.
Samantha “smashed open the door” while as Kevin dialled 911. The next moments were “fight-or-flight” for the couple.
There in the parking lot, Samantha had one final contraction and Kellan had arrived, prompting Kevin to instinctually dive to grab his newborn son with the precision of a Gold Glove centrefielder.
“He [Kellan] literally flew out. If my husband didn’t act, he would have hit the pavement,” Samantha said.
“I was thinking, ‘holy crap, he’s actually coming out!’,” Kevin said. “It was kind of fight-or-flight and my body just took over.”
Eventually an ambulance arrived for the couple and their newborn son. They have since returned home, and all is well with Kellan.
“We’ve been very good since then,” Samantha said. “He’s an eager baby and a little impatient – which makes sense seeing how he came into the world.”