Mt Pleasant Newborn Was In The Wrong Place At The Right Time

By John Voket

As the Southbury bureau chief for a daily newspaper, Newtown resident Christopher Gardner is used to seeing reports about babies being born in unconventional locations. He has even been called upon to write a few stories on the subject — always after the fact.

But when Mr Gardener found himself calling 911 as his wife began delivering their second child on the kitchen floor Sunday evening, even the veteran newsman got a little flustered.

“I remember the dispatcher asking me to give him my name, and then he asked for my address, and before he could even begin asking the third question, I was yelling for him to send an ambulance because my wife was delivering our baby right now!” Mr Gardener said smiling, as he recalled those hectic moments.

The sequence of events was still fresh in his mind Tuesday afternoon as he cradled 2-day-old Caroline Elizabeth Alice Gardner in his arms at their Mt Pleasant Terrace home. Mr Gardener spoke to The Bee about how neighbors came running from all directions as it became apparent that he was about to become a parent again, without the benefits of a conventional hospital delivery room.

“It was a little before nine and we were trying to get Andrew to bed,” he said of the couple’s 3½-year-old son. “Things were going totally by the book, and when the contractions started coming steadily, we called the doctor and he said we should bring Kathy in.”

Mr Gardner contacted his parents Bob and Karen Gardner, who lived just a few minutes away, to come over and watch young Andrew so he could get Kathleen to the hospital with plenty of time to spare. Chris Gardner said he was not too worried because his wife was comfortably situated in bed and, after all, everything else about the pregnancy had played out normally and on schedule, right down to the predicted day of arrival for their new baby.

But while the couple waited quietly with their young son for his grandparents to arrive, Kathleen’s water broke.

“At that point Kathy said it felt like one big contraction that wasn’t stopping. So I thought I should call our neighbor Elise to come over hoping I would buy some time instead of waiting for my parents to arrive,” Mr Gardner recalled. “I knew she had a 6-year-old at home, too, but I remember asking her if she could get over here right away.”

Neighbor Elise is Dr Elise Romanik, an internist, who is also a family friend of the Gardners.

“Once she arrived and took one look at Kathleen, she asked me if I wanted her to do a quick examination. I said ‘yes’ and she told me a few seconds later that Kathy was fully dilated and that she had to go,” he said. “So here we are making our way out to the car, and Elise has Andrew on one arm and Kathy on the other.”

By the time the group reached the driveway, however, it was too late for Ms Gardener. She could not get into the car, so their neighbor whisked her back into the house. They made it as far as the first floor kitchen, situated her comfortably on the floor and Dr Romanik told Mr Gardner to call 911.

All this activity caught the attention of the Gardners’ other neighbors, Tim Gies and his fiancée Sherry Hernly, who were out in their yard putting the finishing touches on their holiday light display. Coincidentally, both Mr Gies and his fiancée are firefighters and she is a trained emergency medical technician.

“Tim and Sherri saw the commotion and came running over while I was upstairs calling 911,” Mr Gardner said. “So I came back down into the kitchen to see them and Elise crowding around Kathy, and I saw the baby’s head. Tim told me to grab some towels and sheets, and at that moment, my parents walked in.”

While the senior Mr Gardner took his grandson into the living room, his son ran back upstairs for the towels and sheets.

“I came down the stairs just in time to see Sherri holding one hand, my mother holding the other and my daughter being born,” he said. “I saw right away that it was a girl, and I just tried to stay out of the way so Elise could focus on the baby. When she started crying, I was reassured that everything was going to be OK.”

Then the Newtown Ambulance volunteers arrived.

“They came in with their delivery kit and got right to work,” Mr Gardner said. A few minutes later, mother was lying securely in the back of the ambulance with her new daughter beside her cradled in daddy’s arms. (Baby Caroline weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and measured all of 20.5 inches.)

Tuesday, less than 48 hours later, Mr Gardner finally had an opportunity to step back, take a deep breath, gaze lovingly upon his newborn daughter and let the memories of that crazy, wonderful evening play out in his memory.

“All I kept thinking was, this can’t be happening,” he said. “But it really was amazing to see how everybody came running over and worked together to make Kathy as comfortable as possible. This story is about her, and about them, not me — they are the heroes.”

And while all this was going on, Ms Gardner said she recalled an initial feeling of fear, which turned to relief as her neighbors and in-laws began to converge on the scene.

“I was terrified, but at the same time I trusted completely in the people who were there,” she said. “I just want to thank all the wonderful people who came running to help us and support us. During the entire time I felt I was in capable and loving hands.”

In the end, Mr Gardner said, he has gained an even greater appreciation for the selfless volunteers who answered the call, and the goodwill of his Newtown neighbors…and the unpredictability of the last few hours of a pregnancy.

“Our doctor [Newtown resident Dr Kevin Mitchell] said these kind of things happen only once or twice a year at his practice,” Mr Gardner said. “Up until those last few minutes, this was a textbook pregnancy.”