Baby Born in the Car, Into Mama's Arms!

I just read your beautiful birth story on your page, and saw the link to share stories.  I'd like to share my fourth birth story.  

It is certainly a morning that we will never forget, our little guy was born in our van, en route to the birth center, with our other three kids in the back of the van!  In hindsight, I realize that the contractions I had been having all through the night were clearly 'those' contractions!  However, at the time I felt that they were pretty sporadic and didn't feel that strong, and being 2 weeks early, I had assumed they were the 'practice' contractions I remember having with my other three labors.  I relaxed on the couch in the early hours of morning, and when my husband got up for work I told him I thought I might be in labor.  I took a quick shower and got out to call our midwife.  By this time my contractions were feeling much stronger, and I really had to focus and breathe through them.  My husband called the babysitter to come over so we could go to the birth center.  As I was grabbing my bag, my water broke and I immediately started having these strong, powerful contractions that just took my breath away.  It's funny, I don't remember them as 'painful', just 'powerful'.  I yelled to my husband to call the sitter and have her meet us there, I felt like we wouldn't have time to wait for her.  We all excitedly ran out to the van and got everyone buckled in.  As soon as we pulled out of the driveway I started saying, 'Pull over!'  He kept saying, 'No.. we can make it!'  I undid my seat belt so I could squat in the front seat, thankfully I had thought to throw on a little beach skirt that I had worn to the lake the day before, so I didn't have any clothing to worry about.  I remember my husband saying.. "Stop pushing!"  and I replied, "I"m not pushing!"  But with that low grunt that made me realize, Oh God, I WAS pushing!  I remember looking into the backseat, and our two older boys, ages 10 and 8, looked wide eyed, and our daughter, age 3 was just looking at us like we were nuts.  I remember saying, "It's okay!  It's just really intense!"  Then I reached down and could feel the crowning of the head.  I said, "I can feel the head!"  My husband still believed we could make it, (still about 25 minutes away), and said, "No you can't!  We are going to make it!"  I remember saying calmly, "The head is out."  Which made him finally pull over.  I reached down, and the rest of our baby just tumbled right into my hand and forearm.  I remember not seeing if it was a boy or a girl for a few seconds.. just looking at this little person face down on my arm was so shocking!  My husband looked and said, "It's a boy!"  The kids all unbuckled to come and take a peek at their new baby brother, Brody Van Roberts.   Some people ask if I was ready to divorce my husband for not pulling over, but I really think that if he had pulled over, panic would have set in as I realized what was happening.  But my focus was to get him to pull over, not so much what was actually happening!  I honestly wouldn't change a thing about his birth story.