“You’ve heard the stories that people have babies in the car, but we don’t know anyone who had a baby in the car,” said Stephanie Lende. “How do you deliver a baby in a car? It’s really a miracle.”

Baby Dillon Eugene Lende’s older sister Téadora arrived 11 minutes after her parents got to the hospital, but Dillon just had to beat her, his mother Stephanie said: he came minutes before they arrived.

The 7-pound 8-ounce boy arrived at 2:18 a.m. on Valentine’s Day, just two days before his parents’ five-year wedding anniversary and more than two weeks before his due date.

Stephanie and Nick Lende planned to drop their three children Aidan, 4, Coda, who is almost 3, and Téadora, 1, off at their grandparents’ house on their way to Redwood Memorial Hospital, but that didn’t happen.

After two false labors, Stephanie said she wanted to make sure it was for real when she went into labor Tuesday night shortly after 9 p.m.

“I started labor at about 9:15 p.m., but we wanted to make sure it was the real thing before we came down here,” she said.

The couple woke their three young children around midnight and got them ready.

“Right before 1 a.m. we pulled out of Crescent City,” Stephanie said, adding that at that time her contractions started getting closer together and more intense.

Stephanie insisted that Nick not exceed 70 mph and the couple listened to Enya as they traveled to the hospital.

“At Trinidad I told Nick there was no way we were going to make it to Fortuna,” she said.

“I was going the speed limit until we got to Trinidad,” he said. “At Westhaven she said, ‘The baby’s coming,’ and I said, ‘Give me five more minutes.’”

Although she thought she might be able to, Stephanie said she soon realized that was not possible.

“The next contraction started and I said, ‘Pull over now,’” she said.

Nick said he pulled over on the side of U.S. Highway 101 just after the Clam Beach exit and ran around the minivan to the passenger’s side to where Stephanie was sitting reclined in the front seat.

“By the time I opened her door, his head was crowning,” he said.
 
“I pushed him out and Nick grabbed him and put him on the blanket on my chest,” Stephanie said. “I looked at him and checked that he was breathing and had a good pink color and Nick closed the door and got back in the car and turned the heater on full blast.”

The whole event took about four minutes.

Nick said he called his parents, who called Mad River Community Hospital and alerted them that the Lendes would be arriving soon.

When they arrived at the hospital, someone was waiting in the parking lot with a wheelchair and Stephanie and Dillon were rushed in, where a doctor cut the umbilical cord, delivered the placenta and gave both mom and baby a check-up.

Although their children were a little confused and one was crying, Stephanie said they all took it in stride.

“(Right after I had Dillon I said) that sense of euphoria and that sense that all is good with the world comes over you and I said, ‘It’s all OK,’” Stephanie said, adding that her comment calmed the other children.

Once they were settled at the hospital, Stephanie said the other three children came in to meet their new brother.

“I just said, ‘This is your baby brother Dillon,’ (and Aiden) said, ‘Dillon, you finally decided to come.’”

Do the other children understand that it is not typical for babies to be born in vehicles? Stephanie said they haven’t talked about it yet, but at some point they will.

“I am sure we’ll have some conversation about that, that most babies aren’t born in the car,” she said.

For now, Stephanie and Nick said they are just thankful everything turned out so well.

“We just really feel God was with us the whole time,” she said. “For having a baby in the car, it went as smoothly as it could.”