Gaston County's first baby of 2019 wasn't born in the sterile environment of a hospital, as first reported, but in the passenger seat of a Chevrolet Cruze rushing up Interstate 85.

Atom Bomb Sain entered the world near the Kings Mountain weigh station at 5:55 a.m. Tuesday. His parents, Jessica Killian and Randy "Earl" Sain, had left their Grover home after Killian's water broke minutes earlier, with one of Killian's friends, and 5-year-old daughter tagging along in the back seat.

"My contractions, they were three minutes apart, so I knew we gotta go," Killian said. "But about five minutes before we hit the weigh station they weren't stopping at all."

The birth had already started by the time Killian's friend called 911. Sain was turning into the emergency lane when he reached over to catch the baby.

"If he wouldn't have been there, there's no telling what would've happened to Atom," Killian said. "He could've went to the floorboard or anything could've happened to him. He pulls over, jumps over to my side and basically caught him as he was coming down."

Sain got directions from dispatchers on how to use a shoelace to tie off the baby's umbilical cord. The couple met paramedics on Bessemer City Road, who then drove them to CaroMont Regional Medical Center in an ambulance.

The baby — a 7-pound, 14-ounce, 20-inch boy — was nicknamed "A Bomb" while Killian was pregnant. Eventually the couple decided that if the child was a boy, they'd name him Atom Bomb.

Killian said Wednesday that the name fits.

"He really did come out like a bomb," said Killian, 32.

The baby is Killian's fourth and Sain's third child, but the first the pair have had in their one-year-long relationship.

Atom met Killian's 13- and 5-year-old daughters the day he was born.

"My oldest, she kept talking about his name," Killian said. "She didn't like his name to begin with, but she got here yesterday and she couldn't put him down ... (My youngest), she's like, 'Oh, he's cute, but oh look at me.'"

CaroMont officials initially gave The Gazette information about the first child born at the hospital in 2019, rather than the first child born in Gaston County overall.

Killian was expected to be released from the hospital sometime Wednesday.

You can reach Adam Lawson at 704-869-1842 on Twitter @GazetteLawson.