When Dustin Rhodes went to buy paper towels on a recent Sunday evening, he had an immediate need: His wife had just given birth in their car.

“But because of the darn grocery store hoarding, [he] wasn't able to find any decent paper towels to clean our poor car out after the traumatic experience,” said Heather Rhodes, his wife.

“Just our luck to have this baby in the middle of a virus panic,” she joked. “At least it will make a good story to tell later.”

Their baby — Oliver Carson Rhodes — does indeed have a good story to share about his unique birth.

Oliver is the couple’s fifth child. Throughout Heather’s pregnancy, the couple talked about making it to the Powell hospital from their Cody home in time for the delivery, since two of their children were born within half an hour of getting into the hospital.

“So, we were joking through this whole pregnancy that, it's like, you know, just make it there on time — don't be having a baby in the car,” Heather said. “And it's like … no, we're not going to do that. That's not going to happen.”

When she first started going into labor, the couple headed to Powell Valley Hospital around 2 a.m. Sunday, March 15.

“I was having pretty good contractions for hours and then all of a sudden, they stopped,” she said.

They waited at the hospital for the contractions to start again, but to no avail. The couple eventually headed home so Heather could get some rest.

“I took a nap and then there's all these old wives’ tales about how to start labor — you know, doing exercises and eating pineapple and spicy foods and all sorts of things,” Heather said.

She tried different things, only to have contractions start and stop again.

“And then finally, it started and when it started again, seriously, it was like it went from zero to 100,” Heather said.

The contractions “just kicked right into high gear and they were all like five minutes apart.”

She called the hospital to say she was heading back.

But first, she loaded the dishwasher.

“The only thing in the house that wasn't clean was the dishwasher, and so I took maybe like five minutes to load the dishwasher,” Heather said. In hindsight, she called it “a dumb idea.”

“By the time my husband finally waddled me out to the car, I was having to stop and take breaths because I couldn't move,” she said.

The couple left their home off Road 2AB, between Cody and Powell, and Dustin raced toward the hospital.

“He is hitting Mach 5 and, of course, we are passing state troopers and he's slamming the brakes on to try and not get pulled over,” Heather recalled.

Once they got to Ralston, Heather called her nurse, RayAnn Hessenthaler, and asked her to meet them at the ER doors; Heather knew she wasn’t going to be able to walk into the hospital.

Then, between Ralston and the hospital, her water broke.

While her other labors have ranged in length from less than three hours to 20 hours, “I do know that once my water breaks, they are coming real fast,” Heather said.

“It was like one big push and his head came out, and so I grabbed his head and I just pulled him the rest of the way out,” Heather said. She wrapped her son in her coat.

Oliver was “very purple,” Heather said, and she began hitting his back to try to get him to breathe.

All the while, Dustin continued racing toward the hospital. He was going to pull over, but Heather said to keep driving, as “we were only a minute from the hospital.”

When they pulled up to the ER just after 4 p.m., Hessenthaler and midwife Ashley Engesser came rushing out.

“You could just see the look on their faces just drop because it's like, oh, the baby’s already in the car,” Heather said. “But they were really sweet.”

With Oliver still in her arms, Heather was placed in a wheelchair and raced to a room.

Originally, the couple had planned to name their new son Oliver Quin. But months earlier, Heather had heard about a son born in the car named “Carson.” She called it “the ultimate dad-pun,” and said she really likes the name.

“It hit me when we got in the hospital. I said in the hospital bed, ‘Dustin, you know what we got to do now, right?’” Heather said. “So he's not an Oliver Quin. He's an Oliver Carson.”

Soon after Oliver arrived in the car, he had to take his first flight in an airplane. Oliver’s lungs weren’t fully inflating, so he was flown from Powell to Billings that night. With being born so quickly, “his lungs just didn't open like they were supposed to,” Heather said.

She flew with Oliver — also known as Ollie — to St. Vincent Healthcare, while Dustin has stayed at home, taking care of the couple’s older children: Luke, 9, Hayley, 7, Marshall, 4, and Lincoln, 2.

As is true for most families right now, nothing seems normal amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Thankfully, family members and friends — including those from Veritas Academy, Open Gate Church and Cody MOPS — have helped the Rhodes in a variety of ways.

“They've all been so great about making sure everybody over there is cared for and that I get what I need over here,” Heather said last week from Billings. “And I've got some family in Billings, too, so we've been able to get through so far.”

She said the family has been “super blessed.”

Heather has stayed in the hospital with Oliver since March 15, and the world has changed as the novel coronavirus has spread and public health officials have imposed new restrictions.

“Oh my goodness. It's just so bizarre,” she said. “I've been stuck in the hospital this whole time. And I'm like, picturing walking out into a post-apocalyptic toilet paper-less landscape.”

She’s ready to be home and officially introduce Ollie to his older siblings. On Wednesday, 10 days after his birth, the baby was able to leave the hospital and go home.

“I will be very happy when we get home and back to normal — as normal as normal can be right now,” Heather said.