Listening to your parents talk about the day you were born on your birthday can get repetitive, but this Ontario couple might just have the best story to tell all year round.
On August 30 around 3 a.m., soon-to-be mom Tori Dubois woke her husband to tell him that her water had broken and contractions had begun. They immediately called their midwife.
"Our midwife said when they got close 2-3 minutes apart to head to the hospital," the father, Tyler Remillard, told Narcity, explaining that the midwife expected that would give them plenty of time to get there as it was their first child and "first babies tend to take longer."
Little did the couple know that they probably should've left a while earlier, because things escalated quickly and they got into some unforeseen traffic on the 45-kilometre drive from their home in Onaping to the hospital in Sudbury.
"Once we hit Dowling, we got stuck behind some newer white Dodge Ram that wouldn't let us pass despite me having my hazards on," he said.
Remillard said that after finally passing the Dodge Ram near Azilda, nearly 20 kilometres later, Dubois told him she "felt like we weren't gonna make it" — and she was right.
"Not even 5 minutes later, I was on the phone with 911 'cause she could feel his head coming, and as I was talking to the dispatcher, as I was driving, my wife said, 'He's here.'"
Surprise!
At 5:40 a.m., Remillard looked over at his wife and found his baby boy in her hands. Their son, Casen Ryley Remillard, was born in a 2013 Chevy Silverado.
Casen Ryley Remillard.Courtesy of Tyler Remillard
At that point, the dispatcher said an ambulance was 4 minutes behind them, and that's when they stopped on the side of the road to wait. Paramedics told Remillard to wipe the baby's mouth and nose and to make sure he was breathing.
"We were a little scared but also trying to stay calm for the baby," he said. "My wife was in pain, but it was fast. She only had to push twice, everything went as smoothly as it could."
The ambulance took mom and baby to the hospital, while dad followed behind in his truck. Remillard said the paramedics even left the umbilical cord long enough that he was still able to cut the rest of it himself when they all reached the hospital.
"Definitely a wild, crazy experience, but it will be a great story to share forever," he concluded.