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Baby makes an entrance — mom gives birth in upstairs hallway
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| New father Bobby Erisman holds his son, Robert, on Tuesday morning at CCMH after his wife, Tami, delivered the baby Monday morning at Bobby's parents’ Foothills Subdivision home. The delivery didn’t go as planned, but the parents couldn’t imagine a better birthing experience. — News-Record photo by Paul Ruhter |
By CHRISTA MELAND, News-Record Writer
Tami and Bobby Erisman’s baby wasn’t due until June 3. But they were prepared for an early arrival: Their suitcase was packed, they knew what the labor would entail and their doctor in Spearfish, S.D., was ready to deliver.But when Tami’s water broke at 7 a.m. Monday, the 27-year-old mother-to-be knew things weren’t going to work out as planned.
She was right. Her baby was delivered in the upstairs hallway of her in-laws’ home with the help of two emergency workers.
“Everybody was so nice and so great, it couldn’t have been any better than it was,” said Bobby, 24, a 2001 Campbell County High School graduate. “It was really neat to get to do it at home.”
Tami and Bobby were married in September and came to Gillette from Minnesota a couple of months ago for work. Because they haven’t been able to find a home, they’ve been living with Bobby’s parents, Robert and Tammie, in their home on Garden Circle.
Shortly after Tami’s water broke Monday, she waited through excruciating contractions for her husband to return from Evergreen Energy, where he works as a plant operator. As he was packing the car, Tami tried to make it down the stairs and into the car but stopped short in the hallway.
“I don’t think I can make it to Spearfish,” she told her mother-in-law.
“I don’t think you can make it to the hospital here,” Tammie said.
She laid down on the floor shortly after 8 a.m. while her mother-in-law called 911. Within four minutes, Crystal Wrenn and Ken Maston — along with a slew of fire department workers — were at the Erisman home.
Wrenn kneeled at Tami’s feet watching for the baby while Ken sat near her head offering words of encouragement and helping her through her contractions. Neither of the emergency management services workers had ever delivered a baby.
Within 10 minutes, Robert Erisman III had arrived at 8:24 a.m. — a happy, healthy 19-inch, 6-pound, 11-ounce baby boy.
“Put on the catcher’s mitt and away we go,” said Maston. “He was determined to beat us.”
Tami, Bobby and Robert were taken to Campbell County Memorial Hospital at 8:40 a.m., where they’ve been resting ever since. They’ll return home Tuesday.
The successful home birth actually has prompted the new parents to consider home births for future kids — but with the help of a midwife.
It’s something the couple never thought they’d consider. There were two important criteria they had wanted in a doctor and found in the one in Spearfish: A female and a strong Catholic. While that’s not what they got Monday, they couldn’t have asked for a better birthing experience.
Wrenn couldn’t have asked for a better delivery experience either. Everyone remained calm and the delivery was “textbook.”
“It’s so rare that something this good happens (on a call). Usually it’s people who are sick,” she said. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
She and Maston stopped by the Erismans’ hospital room Monday afternoon as did several firefighters who had given Wrenn a congratulatory souvenir: A catcher’s mitt and baseball painted gold with the words “First Catch” along with the date and time of the birth.
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