A.J. Ellis never had the chance to personally witness the
birth of his first two children, but the Dodgers catcher received an up close and personal
view of his wife, Cindy, giving birth to their third child.
On the morning of
Oct. 12, Cindy informed him that her water had broken. So the couple jumped into the car, hoping to make the
30-minute drive to the Milwaukee hospital. Midway through the drive, however,
Cindy's contractions started to increase.
It came to the point where she turned around, faced the
back window of the car and couldn't take it anymore. And in the front seat of a
Toyota Corolla, Ellis witnessed the birth of Audrey Elizabeth Ellis.
"Her eyes were wide open looking at me," Ellis
told MLB.com.
"On a panic scale of 1 to 10, I had been about a 15. That brought me down
to about a nine. It was really cool seeing her eyes open. Our other two kids
were born with umbilical cords around their neck. That was my biggest fear.
That we'd have a complication and we're in a car and not a hospital."
Through it all, Ellis never had a chance to pull over on
Interstate 43 to check on Cindy. He also had to move around with caution,
considering he was still recovering from offseason knee surgery.
That's the reason the Dodgers backstop needed to borrow
his father-in-law's Toyota Corolla for the trip. Now, the vehicle will
certainly hold a special place in the family's heart moving forward.
"I can tell my other two kids exactly where they were
born," Ellis said. "With Audrey, the best I can say is that it was
between mile marker 42 and 43ish, not really sure. Or, place of birth — a
Toyota Camry."
He also learned a valuable lesson in the process.
"One of the lessons I learned was, don't pick a
hospital 30 minutes away," Ellis told the LA Times.
"And the other was, when the contractions are really close, that means the
baby is coming."
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@AJEllis17
