Addison Rose Harig was in a hurry to see the world. She was born in the wee hours of Friday in the upstairs bathroom of her parents’ home on South Shore Drive.

Mother Nicole Everett woke the father, boyfriend Randy Harig, from his slumber at about 12:30 a.m. with strong contractions about four minutes apart and asked him to call the hospital. He quickly dressed and grabbed her cell phone, but the device wouldn’t work. He grabbed his cell phone. It didn’t work either. Was a tower down?

Like many young adults, they don’t have a land line. Randy went outside to see if neighbors were awake, but no luck. He went to neighbor Troy Waldemar’s house and banged on the door. When Waldemar came to the door, Randy asked to call his parents, Mark and Trudy Harig. He let his father, the sheriff of Freeborn County, know he would be taking Nicole to the hospital and asked if he could reach her parents, Randy and Nancy Page. He said he would send a squad car to their house to wake them.

Randy ran back to his house, and Nicole was in the bathroom.

She yelled, “You need to come here now!”

He rushed up the stairs and closed the door.

“She said, ‘The baby’s coming now!” Randy told the Tribune in an interview Friday at Albert Lea Medical Center’s maternity ward. “She said, ‘I am holding the head!”

Nicole, 30, had had four children, but this was Randy’s first. The 33-year-old would need to deliver it.

He asked her to lie down. As soon as she was on the floor, the baby came out. The floor flooded with water because it wasn’t until the birth that her water broke. Randy caught the newborn and announced she was a girl — they hadn’t known the gender in utero. He wrapped the baby in a towel and handed the infant to the mommy. They didn’t sever the umbilical cord, and they didn’t need to clear the airway because the baby had cried right away.

Down the stairs and out the door Randy went to the Waldemar house.

“Can you call 911? I just delivered my daughter on the bathroom floor,” he told the man, who couldn’t believe his ears.

When Waldemar called, it coincidentally resulted in Sheriff Harig’s call to the dispatch center being placed on hold. That’s how the sheriff learned he was a grandfather. Meanwhile, the new father soothed the mother, saying the ambulance was on the way, and he grabbed more towels.

In six minutes, emergency responders were there despite snowy streets. First to arrive was a police officer, who checked to see if the baby was OK, and seconds later paramedics walked in, who checked the baby and the mommy. They clamped the umbilical cord and moved her downstairs to the living room.

The four other children — Garrett, 8, Joshua, 6, Lucas, 5, Paige 3 — were thrilled the baby was a girl. The family had hoped for one. And during this high-tension moment in their house, they were well-behaved, the parents said. Randy said they seemed to understand it was no time for childish antics.

Nicole walked to the ambulance with help from paramedic Mark Jacobs, who lives in the same neighborhood. He rode in the back of the ambulance with them on the way to Albert Lea Medical Center. It was at the hospital she delivered the placenta.

Randy told Dr. Stephen Thorn jokingly, “Since I delivered the one. I think you can cut the umbilical cord.”

Friday was a hectic day for the parents. Their Facebook page was loaded with comments from friends and family.

“No one believes us,” Nicole said.

During the birth of her four older children, labor had been induced and she had been on pain medication.

No painkillers this time. Labor for Addison happened so fast, she was more scared than anything.

“There wasn’t really time to worry about the pain,” she said.

Nicole had been to Albert Lea Medical Center on Thursday for a nonstress test. Her cervical dilation was the same as it had been the previous two weeks — 2 centimeters. The due date had been Dec. 7.

Addison was born at 12:59 p.m. Dec. 4 at 6 pounds 13 ounces and 19 inches long at 2517 South Shore Drive in Albert Lea.

The maternity ward at ALMC is called The Baby Place. Its nursing manager, Joy Shaft, said Addison was the first unanticipated home birth of 2009.

Randy said he was thankful for many things functioning when the cell phones would not, including that he was at home. He works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Interstate Packaging.

“It’s amazing how things work when it really needs to work,” he said.

Thorn had been Nicole’s obstetrician for all of her children. He had told her that because her other births came quickly, don’t be surprised if this birth came fast against once her water broke.

Little did she know how right the doctor was.