The power of birth, it’s a feeling all parents have experienced. But for one Campbell family, the birth of their son on Christmas morning will always have special meaning, and not just because of the holiday. NBC Bay Area’s Sam Brock reports
Joe and Erin Heyming knew they’d be receiving presents on Christmas.
The neatly-wrapped boxes sitting under the tree at their Campbell home suggested
preparations were under way. But one gift the couple received took them completely off-guard, rendering preparations virtually useless.
Connor Heyming, the newest member of the family, arrived in the early morning hours of
Christmas Day, about two weeks earlier than scheduled.
“It was very reactive,” Joe Heyming described, recalling his push into action at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. “It looked pretty straightforward [from the last birth],” he said, when the Heyming’s first child, Logan, was also born at home.
“You’ve just got to make sure the baby doesn’t hit the ground, right? There’s like a point of no return. A tipping point, where the baby slips right out,” Joe Heyming continued.
That ‘tipping point,’ as events played out, occurred at 2:05 a.m., mere minutes before the couple’s
midwives arrived.
Joe Heyming had little option but to deliver the baby himself.
“I thought, ‘Oh, he’s in control, he’s helping me through this,’” Erin Heyming said, smiling at her husband. “Then he told me afterwards he was getting nervous there!”
The entire process, from Erin Heyming’s first contractions to Connor’s birth, lasted about 30 minutes.
Though the circumstances were a surprise, the new mother of two beamed about the special moment, both as a holiday gift and a point of connectivity for the family.
“It was very personal, and I liked that,” Erin Heyming said. “My son was there watching, it was natural. So the personal aspect was what I really liked about it.”
