New Year's Day

Oh, Baby! New Year's Newborn Narrowly Avoids 2020

Nick and Melissa Hawke with their newborn, Delmar.
Sharp Healthcare

Sharp Mary Birch Hospital's first baby born this year is a San Diego girl whose name has an especially local vibe.

Delmar Hawke was delivered at 12:05 in the morning on New Year's Day, Sharp officials said Friday.

The newborn's parents, Melissa and Nick, are locals from the Bay Park neighborhood -- she's a Navy brat who calls San Diego home and he grew up in Spring Valley -- so the name Delmar is not a complete surprise. The couple also has another daughter with a gender-neutral name, Charlie Rose -- with "Delmar," they were prepared whether they had a girl or a boy.

Baby Delmar. Photo courtesy of Sharp Healthcare

"My husband actually picked the name [Delmar] out," Melissa, who's a Realtor, told NBC 7 on Friday. "I picked out my first daughter's name. My husband picked out our second born's. We didn't know if it was gonna be a boy or a girl. We kept it a surprise till she was born."

It's not a shock to learn Melissa had what she described as an "easy labor." After all, look at that picture of her shot just hours after delivery. In fact, she answered her phone Friday after just a couple rings.

Dad Nick, a private boat captain who said he was excited about the family's newest member, who weighed 6 pounds and 3 ounces at birth, made the observation many have to be thinking: "She's probably glad she got to skip 2020."

Spokesman Bruce Hartman, who pointed out that there was also a baby born at Sharp Grossmont Hospital at 12:14, said there has been no baby boom this year, so far as he knows.

"Overall, across the nation, births are down," Hartman said, adding, "I don't know if that's related to the pandemic. We are seeing, especially at Sharp, volume decreasing year-over year."

NBC 7 contacted the Scripps, Kaiser Permanente and Palomar health systems on Friday to try to confirm whether baby Delmar is the county's first birth of the year.

An official from the Palomar health system said a baby boy, Benjamin, was born in Poway at 3:23 a.m. on Friday and they were still awaiting information from Palomar Medical Center Esconido.

A spokesman for Scripps said that organization did not yet have any information to share regarding new year's babies, given shifting priorities.

We have not yet heard back from Kaiser Permanente.

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