After a blizzard, an empty Krispy Kreme parking lot might seem like an ideal spot to do doughnuts — but for Sha’Nya Bennett, it ended up being the perfect place to give birth.
When Bennett went into labor during the second day of a historic winter snowstorm in Alabama, she was determined to make it the hospital.
“I wanted that epidural!” Bennett, 23, tells TODAY.com.
With her partner Keon Mitchell behind the wheel and their 4-year-old son, Legend, in the backseat, Bennett did everything she could not to panic. But her contractions were coming fast and furious.
“The roads were so icy so the drive was taking a lot longer than it normally would. And it felt like every light was turning red as soon as we got to the stop line,” Bennett recalls.
Then suddenly Bennett felt the baby’s head between her legs. At that point, Bennett instructed Mitchell to pull over into a nearby Krispy Kreme parking lot. There would be no epidural, or delivery room for that matter.
“I was like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,'” Bennett says.
Minutes later, there were four people in the car.
Bennett and Mitchell named their second child Dallas Amir, but they’ve been calling him Glaze. Bennett says the Krispy Kreme-inspired nickname suits him.
“He’s so sweet,” she says. “He rarely cries, he’s just a chill, happy little guy.”
At the hospital, Glaze measured 5 pounds, 14 pounces, and was given a clean bill of health.
According to Krispy Kreme, Dallas is the first baby they know of to have the doughnut chain listed as their place of birth on their birth certificate.
“Now every time we pass a Krispy Kreme, Legend is like, ‘That’s where my brother was born!” Bennett says.