Axel Murray, currently 2 days old, couldn’t wait to start living. The baby boy was born on Saturday morning, in a hurry, two weeks before his due date and minutes before his mother could make it into the hospital.

Roxanne Faithfull and her partner Andrew Murray rushed from their central Auckland apartment to the hospital as quickly as they could in the early hours of Saturday, after her water broke at 4 a.m. and the couple timed the contractions. “He was two weeks early. We hadn’t packed the car or had anything ready,” the new dad said, still in awe of his partner. “It was Rox’s second child, but her first was 13 years ago.”

Roxanne’s first baby was born after 22 hours of labor, so the couple was expecting a similar experience this time around. Baby Axel had other ideas. It was a short trip to Auckland Hospital, but baby Axel decided to be born in the back seat of the car, birthed and delivered by mom Roxanne. “With all of these modern gadgets moms have these days, I was packing everything she needed, going to and unboxing, and (badly, lol) figuring out how to fit the baby seat to the back seat of the car,” the father recalled. “She was all fine, and then, boom, she was ready.”

They did not have a midwife or any healthcare professional near them, but they did not feel alone: “We live on the top floor, right in the CBD on Albert St. It was a long, long corridor past all the other apartments and then an open lift, so it felt like the whole complex was with us,” Murray joked. They almost made it to Auckland Hospital in time, but, with the nervous dad driving as fast as he could, the mom continued to labor in the back seat. “We almost got there,” he said. “I drove into the parking gate and I went past the ticket booth. She was screaming, ‘it’s coming’. It was a very fast drive. The head was already showing,” he added. “We then got to the front entrance, and she was holding him in her arms.”

The mother cried tears of joy as she held her baby in the back seat of the car. Mom and the baby are both doing well. Rox and Axel were transferred to Birthcare, but she then had to return to the hospital on Saturday night as her body was still in shock, but she was back at Birthcare on Sunday.

The proud parents can’t wait to take baby Axel home. His dad is over the moon, but he says the back seat will never be quite the same.