MEXICO – Although Gavin Lee Morton is only 2 months old, he and mom Amanda Conway of Rumford are celebrities as far as Med-Care Ambulance is concerned. A Med-Care crew responding to a distress call on Aug. 31 delivered Gavin inside a Peru trailer five days before Conway was due to give birth at Rumford Hospital.

When Conway stopped by the Mexico-based ambulance service to visit on Thursday afternoon, all conversations stopped inside the crew quarters and baby talk commenced.

“Look how big he’s grown!” Med-Care emergency medical service intermediate Deborah Olson said to a chorus of oohs and ahhs as she cradled the nearly 14-pound baby in her arms, carefully walking upstairs while trailed by mom to show him off.

“The last time I saw you, you were upside down,” she said to the baby, who was sucking on a pacifier and wearing the powder blue Med-Care “Special Delivery” T-shirt they gave him.

Olson and paramedics Michael Dixon and David Florin delivered Gavin, who weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and was 19 inches long at birth.

When asked how much he weighed on Thursday, Conway simply answered “13-15” respectively, regarding pounds and ounces. Gavin is her second baby and the fourth for her and husband Shannon Morton.

“He’s 23½ inches long. In the 14 days after he was born, he went from 6-3 to 8-6, and two weeks after that, he was 10 something. He’s a nice healthy baby. We haven’t had any problems. He’s been great,” Conway said.

Dixon, Florin and Olson all said that in their combined 47 years of EMS experience, none had ever delivered a baby “in the field,” meaning away from a hospital. The last time for Med-Care was 15 years ago inside an ambulance.

The day Gavin was born was also Florin’s first day on the job as a Med-Care medic.

“It was the first call on my first shift. I was grinning from ear to ear all day after that,” said Florin, who previously worked for Belfast Ambulance Service.

Olson had delivered babies in hospital settings during an internship with the National School of Midwifery in Grand Prarie, Texas, and Dixon said he delivered a baby about 18 years ago while ascending in an elevator at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

“We were fortunate that we didn’t come up against any complications,” Olson said, although when they arrived, Conway was laying atop a mattress on the living room floor inside her mother’s trailer at the end of Dickvale Road in Peru. Gavin’s head was already outside her womb and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck.

“The first words out of her mouth were, ‘I’m so glad you’re here. I really need to push,'” Olson said.

Olson tried to get Conway to stop pushing until she and Dixon could clamp the umbilical cord, which they did. However, because the sterilized obstetrical kit they had didn’t contain any scissors, Olson had to use a scalpel to cut the cord.

“That’s the part that made me the most nervous,” Olson said.

Once it was safe, Conway pushed twice and Gavin entered the world.

“The baby was pinked up nice. He was never in distress. He never took a breath until I cut the cord. Dave dried him off and wrapped him in a blanket, because the primary concern with newborns is heat loss,” Olson said.

A quick trip to Rumford Hospital and mom and baby went home fine less than 24 hours later.

“I don’t know what I would have done without them showing up when they did. It was pretty intense. I’ll never forget it. They’ll always have a special place with us,” Conway said of herself and Gavin.