Mom gives birth in the fast lanes

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. -- Reggie Inthilith says he all he kept thinking was, "What am I going to do?"

Inthilith was in the driver's seat headed from Woodbridge to Inova Alexandria Hospital with his better half, Melody Burgess, by his side.

Burgess, a human resources manager for Sunrise Senior Living, was about to have their second child.

The couple was in the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Interstate 95 during Thursday's morning drive.

Burgess' contractions started around 5:30 a.m. and the family headed to the hospital around 6:45 a.m. only to find out this delivery would be quicker than her child No. 1, Shane, who is 3.

"I was thinking I had a couple of hours," Burgess tells WTOP.

But then the mom-to-be started thinking, "Were we going to make it to the hospital in time?"

Burgess jokes, "Traffic didn't really help us, even in the HOV."

"The contractions were coming, and I could feel the baby coming," she says.

They pulled over near the Fairfax County Parkway and asked a state trooper to call an ambulance.

That's when the baby started crowning.

"I just told her, 'Hold on, baby. Hold on. The ambulance is coming. The ambulance is coming,'" says Inthilith.

"He was nervous he was going to be doing the delivery," Burgess says, adding that they were "very grateful" Engine Company 37 and Medic 22 arrived.

"In between kind of pushing, they loaded me into an ambulance," Burgess says.

Two days later than originally expected Joshua Inthilith came into the world. He popped into the world at 7:52 a.m. -- in the back of a ambulance. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long.

Outside of the emergency personnel, the calmest person on the scene may have been 3-year-old Shane.

"He was more calm and collected than daddy," Inthilith says.

"He was trying to figure out what was going on," says Burgess, adding, "He was our third HOV person. We wanted to be in compliance."

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)