A California Highway Patrol officer helped a woman give birth early Friday morning in a vehicle on the shoulder of Highway 50 near Watt Avenue. It turns out the new mother is a nurse in labor and delivery at the UC Davis Medical Center.
Here's Blair Anthony Robertson's story:
April Fool's Day came early this year - in the form of one very impatient little girl who apparently doesn't travel well.
It all happened on the shoulder of westbound Highway 50 very early Friday.
That's when Charmaine Fajardo, a California Highway Patrol officer working the graveyard shift, went from writing speeding tickets and looking out for drunk drivers to welcoming Lainey Grace Fankhanel, all 9 pounds 1 ounce of her, into the world.
The frantic scene unfolded in less than a minute. Officer Fajardo and her partner were clearing a traffic stop when a Honda minivan pulled over near the Watt Avenue exit.
It was 3:08 a.m.
A 7-year veteran of the CHP, Fajardo had received all kinds of training - how to fire her 40-caliber Smith & Wesson, what to do in a high-speed pursuit and, yes, how to deliver a baby. But this was her first real delivery.
When the officer looked inside the Honda and noticed the baby's head was already poking out, the next bit of news couldn't have been better - the mother was a labor and delivery nurse.
In calm, cool tones that belied her predicament, Jodi Fankhanel coached the officer through the delivery.
"She was actually very calm and did awesome," said Fankhanel from her hospital bed at UC Davis Medical Center, which also happens to be her employer.
"She gave me the baby. I dried it and it started to cry. Then my placenta started to come out and I told her how to clamp it and cut it and that was it."
Lainey Grace, the couple's fourth child, was due April 1. But when the contractions began, there was no stopping her. Mom reports the newborn already has a few nicknames - Speedy and Freeway among them.
As for Fajardo, the whole thing unfolded like a dream. The Honda pulled up, the baby popped out and the mom just happened to be an expert on such things.
Officer, mother and baby met again at the hospital around 1 p.m. Friday.
"Everything happened so quickly," the officer said, beaming. "It's exciting. I feel like an auntie."
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