BENJAMIN Petterson, of Sutherland, received an early Father's Day present last week when son Cruz was born in the car on the way to hospital.
Cruz Zion Petterson's first glimpse of the world was probably the darkened footwell of the front passenger seat of his parents' car.
"Some people think we should have named him Acacia, but we decided against that," Ms Petterson said. The name "Fauna" did not seem a viable option either.
- Ms Petterson
His next peek was probably the startled faces of Benjamin and Christelle Petterson.
Christelle's sister, who knew of the emergency dash, was in the background on speaker phone as Cruz arrived as the car was parked in Fauna Place, Sutherland, off Acacia Road.
"Some people think we should have named him Acacia, but we decided against that," Ms Petterson said.
The name "Fauna" did not seem a viable option either, she said.
The Pettersons were about five minutes from home and about the same distance from Sutherland Hospital when the baby arrived.
The drama began after the couple asked relatives over for a family dinner. Also present was their daughter, Starr, 4, and son Phoenix, 21 months.
Soon after her two children began jumping all over her, Ms Petterson started having contractions and lay on the couch with a hot water bottle.
After timing her contractions, she phoned the hospital's birthing unit but thought it was too early to go to hospital based on her previous 15-hour labour.
But Ms Petterson soon realised it was too late for an ambulance and asked her husband to drive her to hospital.
The couple were only a few minutes down the road when Cruz started making his entry into the world, so Mr Petterson pulled off busy Acacia Road.
He ran to the passenger side of the car in time to catch Cruz.
"The baby was very floppy and at first didn't respond so my husband started rubbing him and the baby gave a meow and gargled," Ms Petterson said.
"The next thing my husband said was 'where can I wash my hands?'
"I told him to wipe his hands on the grass. I was screaming and crying and both my husband and I were in sheer panic.
"There was a problem with oxygen when my (other) son was born and I was worried . . . you don't have clarity of mind when something like this happens."
The couple arrived at the hospital with Ms Petterson holding her newborn son in her arms.
"I tried to laugh about it. We both said 'how crazy is that?'," she said.
Cruz, who arrived two days early, weighed 4.79 kilos and measured 56 centimetres.
