Nineteen seconds after the stroke of midnight. That’s when Davious LaShawn Perkins, the region’s first baby of 2009, was born. Not that Renton Highlands mother Ashlyn Nearing was counting the seconds.

The first-time mom glanced at the Valley Medical Center clock at about 20 minutes to midnight on Dec. 31. That was the last she checked the time before her son’s birth.

“I wasn’t paying attention to the clock,” says Ashlyn, 17. “After that, I just wanted my baby.”

Nearing and Valley Medical staff realized the significance of the clock’s reading after Davious was born.

“…After it was all said and done, everybody all looked at each other and realized it’s the first day of the year,” Ashlyn’s dad Steve recalls. “The nurses were all excited and running around, calling all the hospitals.”

The result of those calls? The discovery that Davious was the first baby of 2009 born at a hospital in the greater Seattle area.

Valley Medical spokesperson Kim Blakeley says this may be the first time in 30 years that the hospital has birthed the first baby of the year.

Ashlyn and her boyfriend DeAndre Perkins, 21, were surprised that Davious earned that honor for Valley Medical Center.

The 7-pound, 12-ounce boy was initially due Dec. 20. That delivery date was then pushed back to Dec. 24, then Dec. 26. That’s when Nearing says the “waiting game” began. She went to Valley Medical Center with contractions on Dec. 31.

But Davious couldn’t seem to settle on a birth year. Ashlyn expected her son to emerge at about 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 31. He held on until the next year, making him the third generation New Year’s Day baby for the Nearing family.

Davious’ great-grandma was born Jan. 1, 1932, and his second cousin Derik on Jan. 1, 2001.

Davious is Steve Nearing’s first grandchild.

“It’s a whole lot of firsts,” Steve says.

“It’s pretty exciting, pretty crazy,” the new grandpa adds. “If you’re having a C-section you can hold on, but with a natural childbirth you can’t. The time is what it is.”

For his good timing, Davious will receive free baby food until he’s a toddler. New York company Beech-Nut is providing the food.

Ashlyn is grateful for the free baby food. She’s also grateful for Davious and his timely birth.

“It’s pretty cool,” she says. “The simple fact that that’s something like, you know, you can look back on. That’s like a one-in-a-million chance — the first kid born in 2009. That’s pretty shocking.”