Two weeks ago, Kirsten Manges and her husband, Danny, heard about the baby delivered by a police officer on Route 30.
Shown with newborn Preston Lee Manges today are father Danny, mother Kirsten and 2-year-old brother Br
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"We are not having a byway baby," Danny vowed, referring to the birth of Genesis Eve Kucharski along the Route 30 bypass on June 24.
As it turned out, the couple had a Sheetz baby: their son was born in the parking lot of the Sheetz convenience store on West Main Street in Mount Joy.
Preston Lee Manges arrived while his parents were on their way to Women & Babies Hospital.
His arrival came unexpectedly soon after the Mount Joy couple left their home for the hospital. When Kirsten saw that the baby was crowning, her careful planning started to unravel.
"I gritted through my teeth to my husband so as not to alarm my 2-year-old," she said Thursday from her hospital room.
Danny, 33, pulled into the parking lot of the Sheetz store and delivered the baby the rest of the way.
"By that time, the head and shoulders were already out," said Kirsten, 28.
Seven minutes later, an ambulance crew arrived, cut the umbilical cord, and whisked the mother and newborn to Women & Babies.
Kirsten said she was having contractions throughout Wednesday, though they did not reach the length required by the hospital before she was allowed to go in.
"I took a nap Wednesday evening, and then my water broke around 7:30," Kirsten said. "We got maybe two miles out the road, and then it happened."
Preston was born about two weeks before his due date.
"They were going to induce the birth on Monday," Kirsten said, because doctors believed he would be over nine pounds by the time nine months came around.
As it turned out, Preston weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and was 19#-R inches long.
Preston's big brother, Brandon, performed outstandingly, his mother said.
"He's generally very hyperactive," Kirsten said. But "he pretty much was tuned in. He knew that Mommy's belly hurt."
"The whole way up 283 he kept telling the cars 'Get out of the way, Mommy's coming through."
In the parking lot, he remained calm and collected, and seemed excited to hear that an ambulance was coming.
Kirsten, a county native, is on maternity leave from her job as a medical assistant at Strasburg Family Practice. She graduated from Lampeter-Strasburg High School and the Lancaster County Career & Technology Center in Willow Street.
Danny, a Pittsburgh native who moved here about 20 years ago, graduated from Penn Manor High School and attended Millersville University. He owns a private lawn-care company.
Hours after their adventure in birthing, Kirsten said, she and her husband sat in the hospital room, drained and still astounded at what had happened.
"The whole process is amazing," said Kirsten, who is known as the "Sheetz mom" at Women & Babies.
The irony, she said, is that she plans almost everything.
"I am a Type A planner," Kirsten said. "I'm learning there are only so many things you can plan."
Staff writer Stephen Zook can be reached at szook@LNPnews.com or 481-6020.
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