It usually takes some living for someone to acquire a nickname, but Blake Thacker, now just hours old, already has one: Otis.
The second son of Katie and Luke Thacker arrived about 5:45 a.m. today inside an elevator stuck just short of the 14th floor at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.
It wasn't the birth experience his parents had in mind in the pre-dawn hours when they left their Graham home in the driving snow, but they're counting their blessings since everything turned out fine.
"I was just happy to hear my son cry," Luke Thacker said about 11:30 a.m. while he, his wife and new baby recuperated. "Everything went smoothly considering the circumstances."
The action started about 4:15 a.m. when Katie Thacker went into labor. By the time Luke drove to state Route 512 and Pacific Avenue, her contractions were about a minute apart and she was feeling the need to push, he said.
"She was getting pretty close to having the baby," Luke Thacker said.
He managed to slog into Tacoma and get to the St. Joe's emergency room before Blake was born, though.
The decision was made to get Katie Thacker up the 14th floor birthing center as quickly as possible, so the couple boarded a service elevator with three nurses, Katie's mom and sister and Katie's midwife for the trip upstairs.
When the elevator reached the 12th floor, it stopped unexpectedly and the doors opened, Luke Thacker said. The crew decided to leave the service elevator and take another, he said.
Luke Thacker, Katie's mom and sister and one of the nurses got off. When they did, the doors closed behind them and the service elevator started moving again, he said.
The group that got off hustled upstairs, but the service elevator never arrived. It was stuck between floors.
Nurses called hospital maintenance crews, the elevator company and the fire department, but no one could get the elevator moving again.
"To be honest with you, I was just praying," Luke Thacker said. "I was really scared, just because of the unknown. The minutes seemed like hours."
Blake – 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21.5 inches long – couldn't wait any longer and was born in the elevator with the three nurses stuck in the car assisting Katie.
The proud father was able to monitor the delivery via walkie-talkie.
Two elevator technicians eventually got the doors open, and Luke was able to climb down into the car to cut the umbilical cord.
"I took my son and handed him up to a nurse," he said.
Katie Thacker was taken out on a backboard.
Hours later, Katie Thacker said she doesn't remember much about the delivery.
"I was kind of out of it," she said.
One thing occurred to her, though, as she tried to make sense of what happened.
"I kept saying, 'Did I just really have a baby in an elevator?' " Katie Thacker said.
Indeed you did, Katie.
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