By Chris Foreman – photo by Lillian DeDomenic / Triblive.com
Someday, Paige Reese McLaughlin is going to have a great story to tell her friends about her birthday.
After all, not everyone can lay claim to being born in an ambulance.
Penn Township Ambulance paramedics delivered the 7-pound, 3-ounce baby last week in Penn Township en route to Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville.
Paige’s parents, township residents Missy and Jonathan McLaughlin, still are getting a handle on the July 21 whirlwind experience.
“It was very surreal,” Missy McLaughlin said on Monday. “It took a couple of days to sink in that this happened to us. And, it was all natural, too.”
The second-time parents had far less time to prepare for Paige’s arrival than for their son, Jordan, 2. Missy’s labor for their first child lasted 31 hours.
Three days after her due date, Paige didn’t waste any more time in meeting her parents. The birth happened quickly after Missy’s water broke at about 7:45 or 7:50 p.m. Jonathan — who rushed home from work in Turtle Creek — found that Missy already was pushing.
At that point, the situation was urgent because Missy’s contractions sped up to be only one minute apart. Though they had been planning to give birth at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, they called for an ambulance, which headed for Forbes Regional.
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