Baby born in the back seat of car; mother and child okay

Onaway native Rachelle (Nelund) LaHaie woke her husband, Joshua, early Tuesday morning to announce the imminent arrival of their third child.

The couple had been expecting their baby any time since the due date past on Saturday. As they got under way from their home in Alanson they thought there was enough time to reach Cheboygan Memorial Hospital but their son insisted on being born at 5:32 a.m. in the family car on Riggsville Road near the Interstate 75 interchange.

According to events reported in the Cheboygan Tribune bad weather caused LaHaie to drive cautiously.

“The roads were bad, really icy, so I wasn’t going to go crazy driving fast,” Josh explained. “She kept telling me to hurry up, but I was trying to help her breathe properly through the contractions. She had her ‘hee hee hoos’ coming out like ‘hoo hoo hees’ and I was trying to get her to focus.”

RACHELLE wasn’t paying any attention to him. “I told him I’d do it any way I wanted to,” she laughed. Her water broke as they crossed I-75 and she told Josh to “pull over, because it was time to push.” She held on to the hanger bar over the rear door and started to push. “I got scared when I reached down and felt the back of the baby’s head,” she said. “He was coming out upside-down onto the seat but it wasn’t really painful. It happened so fast.”

Josh was ready to do his part. “I thought I would see his face, his nose, but there was his shoulder. I just stuck my fingers behind his armpits and pulled him out,” LaHaie said. His wife instructed him to keep the umbilical cord clear of the baby’s neck, clear out his mouth and lay him on her lap to keep warm on the rest of the ride.

JOSH GOT behind the wheel and started the car. “I still wanted to be careful, but I definitely was in a hurry at that point,” he said. Once they reached the emergency entrance at the hospital, the staff took over quickly. “I went looking for a wheelchair but when I turned around they had cut the umbilical and

had her on a hospital cart,” LaHaie said.

The eight pound, four ounce baby boy named Jeremiah Anthony was resting comfortably with his mother as dad reflected on the hectic morning. His advice for prospective fathers was straight forward, “Don’t listen to your wife, take her to the hospital. Beyond that, stay out of the way.”

The grandparents are Marvin and Roxanne Dean of Onaway, Ronald E. Nelund of Harbor Springs, Coleen Main of Rogers City, and Anthony LaHaie of Cheboygan.

Great-grandparents are Gloria Nelund of Tower and Marvin and Gloria Main of Rogers City.

The Great-great-grandmothers are Gertrude Pasch and Margaret Main of Rogers City.

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