Michelle Ford, shift supervisor at Alpine, knew she was nearing her March 17 due date, but she had no idea how close she was to meeting her new son.
“It was just like any normal day,” she said. “I got up, got ready to go to work. Everything was fine.”
Ford said after Alpine opened at 8 a.m., she ate her usual breakfast of a bacon Parmesan bagel and milk. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that she began feeling something wasn’t right.
She said she thought the pains came from drinking milk, since milk sometimes upsets her stomach. After the pain persisted longer than usual, she called over Mary Jackson, assistant manager of Alpine, for help.
“I went to check on her, and she told me she was in pain,” Jackson said. “I told her to write (the contractions) down, so I knew how many minutes apart.”
When Ford started logging her contractions, she realized they were coming in regular intervals.
“So (Jackson) figured I was going into labor, which I didn’t think I was,” Ford said. “I thought it was just pain. I thought I could walk it off, keep working. But I guess he had other plans.”
Once Jackson figured out what was going on, she said she jumped into action and called 911.
