Now, That's a Heavy Sleeper

I've slept through some things in my life (or at least pretended to), but this one takes the prize.

Dustin Noffsinger is lucky he hasn't been banished to the couch for all eternity. The last time he fell asleep there, his wife gave birth to their son in the bathtub, and he slept right through it.

On the night of Nov. 28, Noffsinger and his wife, Rhonda Richardson, went to bed in their Rifle home. Rhonda slept upstairs by herself because she wasn't feeling well.

Then early Wednesday, the 22-year-old Richardson started having contractions. Because her baby wasn't due until Christmas Eve, she called her midwife and was told to take her medicine, relax and take a hot bath. So she did.

A few minutes later, Richardson had an urge to push, and she could see the baby coming out. "I started screaming for my husband when I saw his head," Richardson recalled. "But no reaction. I could hear him snoring."

She screamed again but no luck. Noffsinger was crashed out, having stayed up with his wife for the past few days.

The baby came out but was still inside his amniotic sac, so Richardson used her fingernails to breach it.

At that point, finally awakened by his wife's screams, Noffsinger, 30, raced upstairs. "I woke up, and she had Dorian (the baby) in her arms, and I said, 'What the heck is going on?"' he said.

They called 911, and an ambulance took Richardson to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs. On Sunday, baby and mother were allowed to go home.