BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. – Amber Nicely and Lindsay Cartwright are celebrating one week with their new baby boy.
"He's been doing fantastic," Nicely said.
"He's healthy, Amber's healthy, so I have no real complaints," Cartwright said.
The staff at LewisGale kept an eye on Parker for nearly a week after he was born because he arrived two weeks before his due date. It was an early entrance that no one saw coming.
Last Wednesday morning, the couple left their home in Covington and set out on the 90 minute drive to LewisGale in Salem for their son's delivery, but they didn't make it there on time. Cartwright had to call 911 and ask for an ambulance because Nicely's water broke while they were driving. They pulled off into a gravel parking lot on the side of route 220 in Botetourt County. Minutes later, Parker was born.
"We're not in a sterile situation, anything can happen," Nicely said. "I was trying to tell myself not to do it."
Parker had good color and was breathing. 911 dispatchers walked the couple through what to do until first responders arrived.
"I check and he's looking back at me," Cartwright said.
It was a life-changing moment for the father, delivering a baby for the first time after a decade of working as an EMT.
"I did not want to do my first childbirth on mine," Cartwright said.
Their fears were finally put at ease when first responders took them to LewisGale.
"We had our last son at Salem and we had this one kind of here," Cartwright said. "Normally you have the hospital pictures but with this, it's in the side of our car."
"Yeah, he had a sense of urgency but I think he just wanted to come hang out," Nicely said.
The family was discharged Wednesday and everyone is doing well.