Sha’Nya Bennett often treated herself to a fresh doughnut during her pregnancy.
“I’ve always loved them,” she said. “There’s nothing like a glazed doughnut.”
She’s fortunate she feels that way, because she’s about to have a lot more doughnuts in her life.
About a week ago, Bennett went into labor with her second son the day after a rare snowstorm hit central and south Alabama, including Dothan, where Bennett lives near the Florida state line.
“I felt a contraction as soon as I woke up that day, but I ignored it,” she said. “Then I got in the shower and more contractions came. I thought, ‘Okay, it’s time to call the doctor.’”
When nobody answered the phone at her obstetrician’s office, Bennett, 23, realized that everything in town was probably still shut down from the storm.
“To see six inches of snow was just crazy,” she said. “We don’t know how to drive in snow around here.”
But she needed to get to a hospital, so she and her partner, Keon Mitchell, grabbed her overnight bag, jumped in the car with their 4-year-old son, Legend, and headed to a hospital about 20 minutes away.
“The roads were really snowy and icy, so I called 911 and told them the situation,” said Mitchell, 24. “They said to either keep driving or pull over and wait for help.”
As Bennett’s contractions grew stronger, she gripped the passenger seat and told Mitchell to keep driving.
“I wanted to have my baby in the hospital, not on the side of the road,” she said.
About a mile from the hospital, her water broke.
“We were sitting at the stop light by Krispy Kreme,” Bennett recalled. “I’d been there just a few days ago with Legend to get a glazed doughnut.”
When the light turned green, she turned to Mitchell: “Please take me to Krispy Kreme,” she recalled telling him. She did not want to give birth in the middle of the intersection.
“We pulled into the parking lot, but there was nobody there. They were closed for the storm,” Bennett said. “That’s when I knew this baby was going to be born in the car.”
Mitchell said he dialled 911 and a dispatcher said paramedics were on the way. But there wasn’t time to wait.
“The baby was coming out, and Sha’Nya told me to grab him,” he said. “It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to think about it. Within seconds, I was holding him. It was mind-blowing.”
Mitchell noted the birth date and time – Jan. 22 at 12:22 p.m. – then grabbed a baby blanket from Bennett’s overnight bag in the back seat, where Legend had been taking it all in.
“It’s not every day you get to see your little brother born,” Bennett said.
She and Mitchell were elated to meet their new baby – whom they named Dallas – and also extremely relieved to see paramedics arrive three minutes later.
“They cut off his umbilical cord and got us to the hospital right away,” said Bennett, noting that she and Dallas were healthy and went home two days later.
“He weighs 5 pounds 14 ounces and he’s sleeping and eating well,” she said.
When he is a little older, he’ll get his first taste of a doughnut, she added.
After Alabama’s WTVY did a story about Bennett’s Krispy Kreme special delivery, the manager of the Dothan shop offered to give her a dozen free doughnuts every week for a year.
“I have four kids of my own, so I can only imagine what that must have been like for her to give birth in our parking lot in the cold,” Blake Rosenkoetter said.
He said he also told Bennett he’d like to host a doughnut party for Dallas on his first birthday, and every year after that until he’s 18.
Bennett said she loves the idea, but plans to eat the doughnuts in moderation.
“I’ll have to give a lot of those doughnuts away if I want to get my shape back,” she said.
She and Mitchell plan to pick up their first box this weekend, then they’ll give some serious consideration to the middle name that has been suggested for Dallas by some of their relatives.
“They want us to go with the name ‘Glaze,’” Mitchell said. “At the very least, it will be his nickname.”