The frantic, middle-of-the-night car ride to the hospital may sound commonplace for many pregnant women but for one San Diegan, four days overdue with her second child, her baby decided not to wait until they reached the hospital.
“You’d never expect this,” said Matt Henry, “It’s so wild.”
Matt said he would laugh at stories about fast births, believing they were unrealistic but around 2 a.m. Friday as his car was traveling 85 mph on Interstate 5, he saw it for his own eyes.
His wife Christy knew it was time to go to the hospital and sent Matt to drop off their first child with a babysitter.
By the time he returned to the boat where the family lives, Christy’s contractions were coming strong and fast.
“We started wondering did we wait too long,” she said.
They left their home around 1:30 a.m. and were driving along I-5 when Christy said she felt like she wanted to push.
“Matt, I think that was my water,” she told her husband.
“It sounded like a water balloon exploding,” Matt adds.
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Next thing she knew she was delivering her baby – a healthy, baby boy weighing 6 lbs 2 oz and measuring 19.5 inches long.
As soon as Matt heard the baby crying he called 911. The dispatcher advised them to either pull over and wait for an emergency crew or keep going to Kaiser hospital.
“It was hilarious when we pulled up,” he said. “My wife’s holding a baby and it’s still attached to her.”
He ran into the emergency room and announced the fact that his baby was born in his car so staff and other patients ran outside to see this newborn with a special story.
“God was really with us and it was neat to see once again how His plan is better than ours,” Christy said holding the baby in her hospital room.
“We had total peace in our car, Matt just kept his cool and kept driving,” she said.
The couple marked the time of his birth using the clock on the car’s dashboard – 2:03 a.m.
Without the help of pain killers, Christy said there was a moment when she thought she wasn’t going to make it through.
“You can tolerate anything for just about 15 minutes,” she said.
Mother and child will stay in the hospital for 48 hours. He didn’t have a name when we spoke with the parents but they said they had a name narrowed down.
Their first son, Ryder, was born 22 months ago - in the hospital his parents are quick to add.
Matt is the pastor at Eastlake Church in Imperial Beach and Christy is the children’s director. They say there are hundreds of people who are excited to meet the new arrival on Easter Sunday.
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