Not many people can say they have taken half an elevator ride. But Amanda and Jeff Lumsden’s newborn daughter, Addison Frances, has. She was born in one of the South Florida Baptist Hospital elevators on the way to the labor and delivery unit Wednesday, June 17.
“She’s an amazing child,” Amanda Lumsden, 36, said. “I can’t imagine what she’ll grow up to be if she conquered this.”
Addison was scheduled to be induced Thursday, June 18. But Amanda Lumsden went into labor at around 7 a.m. June 17. They loaded their Ford Escape with the flip-flops bumper sticker. She wasn’t worried while they were traveling from their home in Lakeland to the hospital in Plant City.
The contractions intensified on their way. The family went to the emergency department. Rachel Sandora, an emergency services technician, put Amanda Lumsden in a wheelchair. They met Jeanice Lerum, unit secretary from the labor and delivery unit, in the elevator.
The silver doors shut behind them.
“Things started to go into overdrive,” Amanda Lumsden said. “I said, ‘We need to go now.’”
She screamed the baby was coming. Lerum checked and saw the baby was crowning. Jeff Lumsden watched the birth of his daughter from over his wife’s shoulders.
“Somewhere between the second and third floor, we had a baby,” Amanda Lumsden said.
Lerum’s priority was that the baby was healthy.
“I just told Rachel, ‘Check her mouth,’” Lerum said. “I just wanted to hear her cry.”
They cleaned Addison’s mouth out. She cried right as the doors opened to the labor and delivery unit.
Amanda Lumsden was able to hold Addison to keep her warm before a swarm of nurses, who had just delivered another child, ran down the hall to the elevator.
“There were a lot of yells,” Amanda Lumsden said. “‘We have a baby!’”
With the attention on Addison, Jeff Lumsden, 42, was left pushing his wife in the wheelchair.
“Everything happened as quick as lighting,” Jeff Lumsden said.
After the whirlwind birth, there was some talk of naming the newborn Ellie in honor of her birthplace. But the family stuck with Addison.
“Her life story of being born in an elevator will be good enough,” Jeff said.
Addison was born at 9:52 a.m., and weighed 4 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 18 inches long.
This is the second baby the couple has had at South Florida Baptist Hospital. The first was son Jackson. He also has a special story. He was born on December 12, 2012.
Jackson almost got to see the birth of his sister. He was at the hospital with his parents and was picked up by a family member. They passed Jeff and Amanda Lumsden as they entered the elevator.
During their three-day hospital stay, Addison became a celebrity. Nurses, doctors and even other mothers heard the story of her chaotic birth. The family was discharged from the hospital Friday, June 19, alongside one such mother, Beth Hyers. Her and her husband, Corey Hyers, gave birth a baby girl, Adina, at 9:07 p.m. June 17. They saw the Lumsdens when they came into the labor and delivery unit.
“My labor was much longer than hers,” Beth Hyers said.
Beth Hyers was in labor for 26 hours. Amanda Lumsden was in labor for about two hours.
The Lumsdens don’t have any plans for another child.
“If there’s another one, we won’t make it to the hospital,” Amanda Lumsden said.
