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Published: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 / Updated: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 02:52 PM

Local baby delivered by dad at home

LAKE WYLIE -- 

Kristy Cox unexpectedly delivered her second child at home this month. With husband Michael, 35, at her side, he said “when her water broke, she had severe contractions and the baby’s head was coming.”

Anna Katherine Cox couldn’t wait to be home in her Catawba Crest neighborhood.

Her mother, Kristy Cox, 34, awoke two days past her Jan. 4 due date at about 4 a.m. with sharp labor pains.

Kristy, a CNA aesthetician at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, said contractions were sporadic – seven, 15, 10 minutes. With their first child, Grace, who turns 2 next month, she said they waited until contractions were five minutes apart to head to the hospital.

Then her water broke.

With husband Michael, 35, at her side, he said “when her water broke, she had severe contractions and the baby’s head was coming.”

He said “the baby came within 20 seconds of the water breaking.” Anna Katherine Cox was born at about 5 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 6, in the family’s master bathroom.

“It was just the two of us,” said Michael, a medical device rep. “She immediately got on the floor of bathroom, and I called 911. They walked me through the process.”

He said he had to make sure the baby’s head came out safely, then the body. He had to make sure the baby was crying, and wrapped her in a blanket and put a hat on the baby’s head.

“This was not in the plan at all,” Michael said of the home birth and natural delivery. “It was completely unexpected.”

Kristy, said in her line of work, she knows the odds are small for a quick, healthy home delivery.

“I would never plan a home birth,” she said, adding, “I was just so afraid of her coming out in an emergency situation.”

“This is a little out of the norm,” Michael said.

The couple are thankful for their neighbors who helped direct the ambulance to their home, and Kristy’s cousin Tasha Duckwell of Lake Wylie, a neonatal nurse, who was there within minutes after receiving a call. Duckwell checked the baby, mother and talked with Grace, who had awoken as paramedics brought the gurney in for mom.

Although Michael said Kristy was “in extreme pain during the delivery,” she is doing well.

Kristy, on the other hand, said maybe it was the adrenaline, but she didn’t remember being in pain.

“It was so quick, I was fine,” she said.

Mom and baby were transported to Presbyterian Hospital, where her colleagues wanted the scoop on what happened.

“You would think I would know to avoid something like this but it happened so fast,” she said. “I keep thinking, did that really happen? You see it on TV but you never think it’s going to be me.”

The house was calm with Grace smooching on her new baby sister, and Kristy’s mother, Colleen Pittman, and sister, Summer, from Virginia Beach coming to meet Anna and help the family.

“I’m just truly thankful nothing adverse happened and we have a healthy baby girl,” Michael said. “It’s truly unbelievable.”

After hearing the 911 played back, Kristy said she was amazed how calm Michael was during the delivery.

“He’s been bragging to all his friends,” she said.

Anna weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.