Monique Knox spent New Year’s Eve celebrating with family and nonalcoholic cider as she watched the Times Square ball drop on television.
A few hours after the get-together, she was at Summa Akron City Hospital preparing to give birth.
Aiden Michael Smith, the first baby born in Summit County in 2013, arrived at 3:04 a.m. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Aiden was a bit of a surprise for his mother.
“I thought he was going to be a Christmas baby,” Knox, 21, of Akron, said Tuesday afternoon. “Originally my due date was the day after Christmas. And then they moved it to Jan. 10.”
It must have been the dancing and cider that moved him up to New Year’s Day, she said, laughing.
His arrival came so fast, in fact, that grandmother Jennifer Wallace and godmother Barbara Bacchus didn’t make it to the hospital in time. Grandfather Eric Knox Sr. was there, though, to help out.
The father is Anthony Smith of Cleveland.
Aiden arrived with a full head of hair. He wore a celebratory tuxedo onesie, until spitting up on it and having to be changed.
Knox, who works in customer service at Burlington Coat Factory in Cuyahoga Falls, said she’s not sure how she came up with the name Aiden. She just liked it.
Wallace decided on the middle name Michael.
“I just thought it was pretty,” she said. “I liked the reference in the Bible and I thought it went really well with Aiden.”
Aiden is Knox’s second child. He has an older brother: 2-year-old Logan De’meir Campbell.
The first baby is typically feted with a story in the newspaper, and some receive other gifts. Knox joked that she hasn’t gotten any prizes such as milk or diapers.
“I’ll take anything,” she said, laughing.
Wallace and Bacchus said they expect big things from Aiden.
“That boy is going to be famous regardless,” Wallace said.
“You start out with fame; you end with fame,” Bacchus said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
