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MILLCREEK — Nathan and Lisa Dallin's baby didn’t want to wait to be born, so he decided to come into this world in his parents’ car.
The Lehi couple went to St. Mark's Hospital just after midnight Tuesday with labor pains, but doctors sent the soon-to-be-mom back home. But just two hours later, the baby insisted on being born.
"Woke up at 5:00 and called the hospital, and they said, 'Keep watching those contractions.' And as I started to watch them, I started to scream,” Lisa Dallin said.
Nathan Dallin helped his wife into the car, which was tricky because she was in pain and he had recently undergone surgery on his right foot and was using crutches. Once in the car, they started driving to the hospital. He said he thought he had plenty of time because his wife wasn’t reacting like she had with their last baby.
Everything went well until they took the 4500 South exit and started heading east toward the hospital. That’s when she started to yell, “It’s coming, it’s coming!”
“A minute or two later, his head came out and the shoulders came out, and he just slid out,” she said.
“The only thing I could think of was I’m so glad the pain is over. I wasn’t that freaked out about being in the car as much as it didn’t hurt anymore,” Lisa Dallin said laughing, “because it hurt.”
The couple, by now the three of them, were stopped at a red light near 4500 South and 900 East.
“I remember being at the stoplight by the 7-Eleven and looking over and she had a baby, holding a baby underneath her legs and I heard it crying so that was a good sign,” Nathan Dallin said. “It was a surreal feeling."
But they were still seven blocks away from the hospital.
"At that point I did what any other man would do, I think, and pushed the gas pedal and drove as fast as I could,” he said. “We started honking our horn and flashing our lights.”
"At that point I did what any other man would do, I think, and pushed the gas pedal and drove as fast as I could," he said. "We started honking our horn and flashing our lights." -Nathan Dallin
They got into the hospital, where the umbilical cord was cut and the brand new baby was attended to.
“I was just glad he came out safe, and we hope that everything is well,” the mother said as she kissed her newborn son who weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces and is 19 inches long.
"He's got lots of blond hair,” she said. “He's cute. He's beautiful.”
Nate and Lisa Dallin's third child will certainly have a story to tell. Now the challenge is to find an appropriate name for the impatient little boy.
“We were in C names already, and we already had this name but because he was born in the car, we might name him Carter,” Lisa said, “and that was one of our top three names, so that might have just sealed the deal.”
Baby and mom will be in the hospital a couple more days, and they are all hoping for a very uneventful ride back home.
“I guess he really wanted to get here quick, and he was ready to get here on his own — at his own time,” the newborn's father said.
The couple has two children at home, a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. Lisa Dallin said they had joked about having the baby in the car because their second child came pretty fast and they hadn’t planned on a natural birth.
“We didn’t really think it would happen,” she said.
Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc
