Quiet Christmas Day Is a Howling Success for Southland Couple

David and Ramona Lee had planned to spend Christmas alone in their West Hollywood apartment, enjoying their traditional holiday meal of roast goose with chestnuts and plum pudding for dessert.

But at 6:30 a.m., the couple got an unexpected Christmas guest--their first child, a boy, who was born with no apparent complications on the living room floor.

“It was an amazing thing,� the proud new father said in a telephone interview Monday. “And what a Christmas present.�

First Indications

Seven-pound, two-ounce Dowland Christian Lee was not due to arrive for another two weeks, his mother, a 30-year-old legal secretary, said. But about 4 a.m. Sunday, she began experiencing minor contractions.

“They sort of felt like menstrual cramps,� she said. “The pain came about every three to five minutes, but only lasted six seconds.�

The woman called her obstetrician, Dr. Karen Kornreich, who told her that she would not need to go to the hospital for another five to six hours.

The doctor “told me that if I was able to talk through the contractions, then I obviously was not in hard labor, and to call her back when the contractions were sharper,� Ramona Lee said.

So, not wanting to awaken her husband, the expectant mother got out of bed, went to the living room and sat in a rocking chair.

Knew It Was Time

“The pain was not real bad and I thought I could handle it on my own,� she said. “Then, about two hours later, I got a couple of sharp pains, and I knew it was time to go to the hospital.�

She woke her husband, wincing as the pain rapidly increased.

He nervously called Kornreich.

The doctor told the panicked husband that it could not possibly be time for delivery.

But the mother-to-be, who was crouched in pain on the living room floor, begged to differ.

“I couldn’t stand, sit up or move at all,� she said. “The only thing I wanted to do was push. David didn’t believe it was happening, until he came over and saw the top of the baby’s head coming out.�

The 37-year-old English chef said he immediately called the paramedics.

“Before I knew it, I had the telephone receiver in one hand, and the baby’s head in the other,� he said. “By the time I hung up, the baby was entirely out.�

Just Popped Out

“The baby popped out like a bullet,� Ramona recalled. “I told my husband the head was coming, and four pushes later we had a baby.�

The new mother and her son were taken by paramedics to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where they spent Christmas night. They were released Monday.

Kornreich said that over the five years she has been practicing, none of her patients has ever delivered a baby out of the hospital. And none of the deliveries has been so quick and virtually effortless.

“Sometimes a mother who is having her second child will have a quick delivery, but this is Ramona’s first baby,� the physician said. “It was quite an unusual birth. She practically did it all by herself.�

The new parents, who have been married a little more than a year, said Lamaze classes helped them to remain calm.

“We didn’t have much time to practice the breathing techniques, but the videos of child birth came in handy. At least I knew what the whole process should look like,� David said.

Although her labor was relatively easy, the new mother said she is nervous about having more children.

“It’s all so scary and unpredictable,� she said. “You spend all that time preparing for 16 hours of intense labor, and it happens in 2 1/2. I was so afraid that something was wrong with the baby and that no one was there to help us. Luckily, everything went just fine.�