It wasn’t the way Lisa Gallegos was expecting to have her second child.

Ten days before her due date and with Winchester in the middle of its second blizzard of the season, the Burlington resident was content to let ride out the storm from her Burlington residence. But at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, Gallegos began to feel contractions.

Considering it was far enough ahead of her due date, Gallegos’ doctor suggested she take a warm bath and enjoy the snow. Instead, as Gallegos noted, newborn Xavier “chose to make a big entrance.”

At 10:30 a.m. Gallegos couldn’t handle the contractions anymore and instructed her boyfriend – Jose Galvan – that they needed to go to Winchester Hospital. With a few inches of snow on the ground already they needed to borrow their friend’s four-wheel drive.

“They were both concerned about the roads,” Gallegos said. “During my contractions I was trying to calm them down. We knew there were a lot of accidents that were happening. I told them to just drive slower, but not too slow because the baby was coming.”

About five minutes before Gallegos reached the hospital her water broke and she instructed her boyfriend it was time to push.

“We were pretty worried at that point because I didn’t want to have the baby in the car,” Gallegos said. “My boyfriend kept telling me to hold it in a little bit longer. He got pretty pale and started to freak out. It was funny – he kept telling me to hold it in.”

They left for Winchester Hospital at 10:30 a.m., and Gallegos arrived in the Emergency Department at 11:05 a.m. Xavier was born five minutes later, at 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches long.

Gallegos was surprised at how quickly the whole process happened.

“I was in shock,” Gallegos said. “It happened real fast. My daughter took a while, but all this happened in less than three hours. I didn’t think it would happen that fast.”

Gallegos was able to make it into the emergency room and through the doors before Xavier was born.

“I was just so happy because we barely made it,” Gallegos said. “I was pretty anxious because I really didn’t want to deliver him in the car. But once we made it into the hospital I knew everything was going to be OK.”