Yesterday, Erin and Andrew McDougall welcomed the first baby to be born in Dunedin on Christmas Day.
Yesterday morning, the McDougalls were getting ready to open some presents in their Dunedin motel room, when 36 weeks’ pregnant Mrs McDougall went to the bathroom and felt like something was off.
Thinking their baby was perhaps making an early appearance, Mrs McDougall, Mr McDougall and 3-year-old son Howard decided to quickly unwrap the presents before dropping Howard at the extended family’s Christmas lunch and heading to Queen Mary Maternity Ward at Dunedin Hospital.
"We were luckily staying in the motel around the corner on George St, literally around from the hospital," Mrs McDougall said.
At 12.51pm, the couple welcomed their second baby boy, who weighed in at 2.8kg.
Mr McDougall said their new son did not yet have a name.
"We were coming down to spend Christmas with my family anyway. We came on December 23 and the original idea was to go home on Boxing Day — well, that was the plan.
"We were going to have Christmas lunch ... Instead, we’re here having Dunedin’s first Christmas baby for 2024," Mr McDougall said.
The couple left the gender of their baby a surprise, and Howard was adamant he was "going to get a little sister".
Due on January 19, the McDougalls’ new baby first tried to enter the world on December 1, at 33 weeks.
The couple raced to Dunedin Hospital by ambulance, where hospital staff got Mrs McDougall’s contractions under control before sending them home.
Howard was born at 33 weeks.
Mr McDougall said "it all went really smoothly and the staff were amazing".
