‘The paramedics came through the door and they couldn’t believe it’
New parents Hollie Fawcett and TJ Holland with baby Oliver on their way to hospital for checks after his unscheduled arrival at home in Beverley; a contented baby Oliver(Image: Hollie Fawcett)
There was no time to plan or panic for new mum Hollie Fawcett of Beverley when her first-born decided to put in an appearance nearly three weeks before his due date. Baby Oliver decided he could not wait until April 13 to be introduced to the world and instead made his sudden debut on March 26 – much to the surprise and delight of his happy parents, Hollie and her partner TJ Holland.
“I’d felt a few niggling pains but nothing bad, that day,” said Hollie, who was at home at the time. “I was timing them, sub-consciously, and they were coming about every five minutes.
“TJ was getting home at about 4pm and I thought, I’ll get in the shower.” With TJ back from work at a commercial bodyshop, Hollie said she stopped timing as they chatted but kept feeling the need to go to the toilet.
“I rang the labour ward and they asked me to go in. I thought, I’ll ring my sister and see where she is, for a lift.”
Hollie’s younger sister, Kacie Fawcett, had only been in the house a matter of minutes when Hollie’s waters broke. “I said, ‘I can feel his hair’, and my sister rang for an ambulance and the paramedics, who were amazing, guided her and my partner through everything.
“It took 12 minutes and four pushes and he was here, it all happened so quickly. We didn’t have time to think about anything – it was the perfect birthing experience really.
“The paramedics came through the door and they couldn’t believe it.” Hollie and her new son – Oliver Craig Holland-Fawcett, who weighed in at 6lb 10oz – were taken to hospital to be checked over and all was well with the pair. They were kept in for five days on antibiotics, as a precaution.
“The midwives at the hospital couldn’t believe it themselves,” Hollie said. “It’s going to be an amazing memory to tell our little Oliver when he’s older.”
The family live on the new Spark Mill Meadows development, at Beverley, and it was the first ambulance onto the estate, Hollie said. “We were so pleased the ambulance could find us – it can take a takeaway an hour-and-a-half to come, because they can’t find the postcode.”
Hollie, who works as a cleaning manager, said her whole pregnancy had been trouble-free with “no issues at all”. “We knew we were having a little boy.
“Oliver has been absolutely great, he’s sleeping really well at night . My cousin is due on April 21 and I’ve said this is how she should do it!”
Kacie said the experience was “a real eye-opener, for sure”. “It was so fast, it was like a blur.”
Kacie said she was at Hollie’s head and on the phone with the paramedics relaying instructions to Hollie and TJ, who she described as “a champ”. She said: “TJ delivered the baby on his own – he was the midwife.”
She explained how Hollie was at a midwife appointment only a day before receiving pointers to such as the length of labour a first-time mum should expect. “That was on the Wednesday at 1pm; Hollie was having contractions the next day though her pains weren’t bad and she thought they were Braxton Hicks.
“Then it all happened; I kept saying to Hollie, ‘are you all right?’ and she said she was absolutely fine. Oliver just wanted to be here.”
Kacie said her nephew was following in her footsteps by making the news. “I was in the paper when my mum went into labour and I was born at the KC Stadium.”
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