The adults had a plan: The former Marine would, when the time was right, leave their 2-year-old son in the capable hands of a relative, and then calmly get his pregnant wife in the car and drive straight to the hospital, have the baby, be joyous and come home.

The baby had another plan.

Why be born in a hospital when a highway would work just as well?

Someday, newborn August David Harms, of Rugby, will be able to point out, as he goes down Highway 2, exactly where he was born - a turn-off area on the highway's shoulder.

His parents, Jessica Harms and Scott Harms, of Rugby, ended up, because of some glitches, with not enough time to get where they needed to go.

And so Scott Harms would have to stop the car. And turn into a midwife.

He told the Tribune his Marine training didn't cover anything like this, but he thinks his military experience may have played a part in helping him to keep his underlying calm.

But he didn't have to keep his calm for long. The drama lasted less than five minutes. Things moved quickly, which they had been for much of the day.

They kept being surprised.

Their first child, Edison Harms, 2, was born one day before his due date and the labor was 12 hours long. The second, August, was expected onOct. 20.

On Oct. 16, in the morning, Jessica Harms noticed some spotting and called her husband, an electrical engineer, at work. But she didn't think this was a hurry-up situation. Nothing else happened through the day. That evening, contractions started.

"That evening, they were getting regular … but they weren't really painful," she said.

Scott Harms said they estimated they had plenty of time and thinks he was kind of fooled into that line of thinking as he watched his wife go about life as usual, straightening up the house and making meals so there would be food already prepared for the week ahead. But then things progressed.

"By 8:30 p.m., they were getting painful,"she said.

At about 9:30 p.m., her water broke. But the couple couldn't roar off to the hospital. It took a while for a relative to arrive to watch Edison. And then when they were able to leave at about 10 p.m., Jessica glanced over and noticed there was little gas in the car. While she sat in the car at the gas station, she started thinking that maybe they had better head over to the emergency room of the Rugby hospital, even though the little hospital doesn't deliver babies there any longer.

She didn't know if she could make it the 50-some miles to the Devils Lake hospital.

But Scott Harms was sure they should have at least an hour left of labor. And, "she wasn't really adamant about (staying in Rugby),"he said. "She didn't argue, so we proceeded on."

Well, they proceeded for a while. For about 15 miles.

Then Jessica Harms instructed Scott Harms to turn the car around to Rugby. He did.

But she almost immediately knew even Rugby wasn't possible anymore. She could feel the baby's head.

"Pull over; you're going to have to help me,"she told him.

It was snowing. Scott Harms got out quickly, came to her side, opened the door, turned the heater on full blast. A little traffic was going by. No one stopped. The baby arrived in less than five minutes. Scott Harms put the baby on mom's lap. They covered the baby with a towel. Scott Harms quickly got back in the car and headed for Rugby's emergency room.

The baby had cried right away, but then was quiet for a couple of minutes and Scott Harms asked if "he" was breathing. "Is it a boy?" his wife asked. He didn't know; he'd forgotten to look.

August was indeed a boy, and healthy, and by the time they got to Rugby, he was nursing.

Also doing well now are happy grandparents Jim and Peggy Harms, of Mandan, and Bob and Nancy Lussendon, of Bismarck.

Scott Harms hasn't traded in his engineer's license for obstetrics. He thinks he picked the right career and plans to stay with it.

But he has the start of some medical credentials.

August's birth certificate shows his dad as being his dad and the "attending physician," Peggy Harms said.

Better known as Doc Highway.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)