By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Miles David Drexler was anxious to be born.
Mother Michelle Drexler, 35, and her friend, Aminda Brunner, a fellow ER nurse at HaysMed, were on the way to the hospital in Plainville, when Miles decided to make an early appearance.
Near the Yocemento exit of Interstate 70, Aminda was forced to pull over her truck and deliver baby Miles right there on the spot.
Baby and mom are both healthy and doing fine. However, Michelle and Aminda are still in shock over the events of Miles' birthday on Dec. 4.
Miles was not due until Dec. 20. Michelle began having mild contractions about 6 p.m. on Dec. 4. She and her husband, Beau, had planned to take their older son Charlie, 3, to the Christmas Past event at Historic Fort Hays that night.
Michelle urged Beau and her sister-in-law to go ahead and take Charlie to the event and she would stay home in Ellis.
Michelle had been in labor with Charlie for eight hours, so she thought there was no rush to get to the hospital. However, her contractions progressed much more rapidly than she anticipated.
Her good friend, Aminda called about 7 p.m. to check in. Aminda agreed to watch Charlie that night in case Michelle had to go to the hospital to get checked.
Charlie was going to be dropped off at Aminda house in Hays', but Michelle lamented Charlie had left his favorite stuffed animal at home. Michelle said she was fine, but Aminda insisted on coming to Ellis to get the the toy and check on Michelle.
In the 20 minutes it took Aminda to make it to Ellis from Hays, Michelle's contractions had advanced to the point she could barely walk. Aminda hurried her to her truck and set out for the hospital in Plainville.
They didn't make it.
Near Yocemento, Michelle said "Oh my gosh, my water just broke in your car. You need to pull over the car now, we're having a baby."
"Now?!" Aminda said.
"Right now!" Michelle said.
Aminda called 911 at 8:08 p.m.
"Oh shit! I caught him! I caught him!" Aminda said as Miles was born into her arms at 8:09 p.m.
Aminda handed Michelle her favorite hoodie and the two women wrapped the baby inside.
"He came fast, like really fast," Michelle said. "He flew out."
Aminda called Michelle's husband and he asked, "Is that a baby I hear in the background?"
EMS arrived a couple minutes later.
"Since we were both ER nurses we knew them," Michelle said. "They had this look of relief like 'Thank goodness it's you guys.' then 'Oh my God, its you guys.'"
The first responders all joked about being named the godfather.
Michelle's sister-in-law, Twany Baxter, a labor and delivery nurse, arrived on the scene shortly with Michelle's husband, and she helped deliver Michelle's placenta.
Aminda said she didn't have time to panic.
As a nurse, she had trained in birth and delivery. She had watched deliveries as a nursing student, but she had never delivered a baby herself.
"I didn't have too much time to think about it, really," Aminda said.
Michelle had asked Aminda if she wanted to be in the delivery room much earlier in her pregnancy. They joked about it, but Aminda wanted no part of the birth experience. She wanted to leave that up to Michelle and Beau.
"As ER nurses when we have someone in labor," Michelle said, "the first think we think is 'Oh my gosh, call labor and delivery and get them here as fast as possible.' That's just so far out of our element. And then we just had a baby, just the two of us."
"Yeah, just you, me and God and Miles," Aminda said.
Aminda's truck was a little worse for wear, as you might imagine.
The two women were already close friends, but Michelle and Aminda said they and Miles will be bonded forever by the highway birth.
"This takes our friendship to a whole new level," Michelle said.
She added, "This was quite the experience together, we have no modesty anymore."
Miles was 6 pounds, 4 ounces and 18 inches when he was born. His grandparents are Lori Graham, Michael Stremel and Betsy Lesuer.