Family welcomes baby in Kalamazoo brewery parking lot

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A Vicksburg couple’s son could not wait to reach the hospital before being born in the parking lot of a Kalamazoo brewery.

Mom Kyle Baker said the couple can’t stop commenting on it: “We just had a baby in a car in front of One Well Brewery. Like, what?”

Kyle and Aaron Baker have two daughters, a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old. Both were born a week later than expected, so the couple was preparing for the same as they awaited the arrival of their third child. They had an appointment to induce labor a week before the baby’s expected due date.

“After nine months, you’re kind of like. ‘All right, let’s get this show on the road and everything.’ I guess God heard me a little, little too much in everything: ‘All right, you guys asked for it,'” Aaron Baker joked.

A gym owner, he was teaching a fitness class on Aug. 31 when he got the call to come home. His wife said she was feeling contractions that were far apart but was advised by a nurse to come to the hospital. Once in their car, plans soon changed.

“We got about five minutes down the road, and I was kind of listening to her and watching her. And I was like, ‘Man, this is this is getting bad. Like, oh gosh,'” he recalled.

Kyle Baker said the time between her contractions shortened to about a minute.

The Bakers got on the phone with 911 as they drove down Portage Road, rushing toward the hospital. Then Aaron Baker saw the top of the baby’s head. He pulled into the first open parking lot in front of One Well Brewing.

“The timing was literally perfect. Like he said, he threw the car and park, ran around, opened the passenger door just in time for the head to be safely in his hands,” Kyle Baker said.

She and the baby are both well.

The couple credited the safe delivery listening closely to doctors as they taught medical students during their appointments for previous pregnancies. They say those notes helped with the delivery, along with the help of first responders.

A NAME WITH A STORY

One Well Brewing owner Chris O’Neill said staff did not know about the story until later much in the night when the Bakers, who are fans of the brewery, called for a to-go order to bring to the hospital.

The Monday following the birth, O’Neill saw leftover notes with small puzzling details of the night. He picked up the phone to hear from the family, who told him about the experience and the middle name they picked out.

“He was telling me that they named the baby Forrest Wells and I think that’s such a cool connection to the community feel,” O’Neill said.

The Bakers say the first name Forrest was picked out before the birth. They say it’s a happy coincidence that it matches the name of a seating section at One Well, the Forest. The middle name Wells was chosen to remember the amazing delivery.

“It’s such a cool story. They like coming here to One Well and the baby just couldn’t wait,” O’Neill said.

He said that as One Well celebrates 10 years in business next month, it could be brewing up something special to mark the delivery of Forrest Wells Baker.

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