On a freeway in Anaheim early Saturday morning, Sandra Vilchez’s water broke, and within minutes she had given birth to an 11-pound, 6-ounce baby girl.

Vilchez was far from alone – her husband and three young children were all on their way to grandma’s.

“I told my husband, ‘I think she’s coming now,’” Sandra told the Ocean County Register. Her husband Bolivar Vilchez could only pull over and help her deliver the baby, even though the Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center was within eyesight.

“I thought we had half an hour, but no, she decided to come by the time we hit Kraemer,” said Sandra. The father pulled over on 91 just past Kraemer Boulevard.

Savannah was born at 4:21 a. m. and weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces.

The three Vilchez children, aged 6, 4, and 3, were in the middle seat of the black Chevy Tahoe. They asked their mother, worried, “is Savannah doing this to you?”

Sandra reassured them by saying, “We’re fine, we’re fine.”

Bolivar called 911 for help delivering the baby, but, as he said, “At the next contraction, we had a beautiful baby in front of us.”

Anaheim fire department personnel arrived minutes later and helped Bolivar cut the umbilical cord, then take the family to Kaiser.

Sandra’s first three children all had to be born through induced deliveries because they were late in arriving. Knowing this and that her newest daughter was not yet due to arrive until Friday, Sandra didn’t believe she would have her baby during their trip to her mother’s. She said, “I didn’t think anything of it, honestly.”

Capt. Shane Sherwood of the Orange County Fire Authority said it is “much more common than people think” for mothers to deliver their babies before they reach the hospital.

Last October, the same fire department responded to almost exactly the same distress call. It was also this woman’s fourth child, and she also gave birth in the car, her husband beside her.