After nine months, Lily Josephine Roach apparently waited long enough.

The latest member of County Councilman Dan Roach’s family arrived Oct. 21 and in a hurry, pressing her father into service to deliver the baby himself at home.

“It just happened a whole lot faster than we were expecting,” said Roach with a laugh.

According to Roach, his wife melanie Roach, who tuns Roach gymnastics and is a firmer Olympic weightlifter, went into labor with the couple’s fifth child at about 12:30 a.m.

Roach said the couple decided to give birth at home using a midwife, but with their usual midwife out-of-town, he placed a call to a backup in Chehalis and she immediately started on her way.

However, it soon became clear that little Lily had no intention of waiting for the 90 minutes or so for the couple’s midwife to arrive and started out on her own.

“The midwife was not going to be anywhere near,” Roach said Friday.

Roach said he called paramedics and tried to convince himself that he was not going to have to deliver his own daughter, but even as they waited for the professionals to arrive, Roach began getting advice from the dispatcher who talked him through the birth.

Roach said he kept the dispatcher on speaker phone, talking him through the birth as nature took its course.

“It was just really fast,” he said.

Three minutes after the 7 lb, 6 oz, 20-inch Lily was born, the paramedics arrived.

“They said ‘Great job,’ and I was like, ‘I’m glad you’re here!” he said with a relieved laugh.

Roach said he stayed calm during the delivery and placed his new daughter on his wife’s chest, but said the scariest part was worrying about any complications, though luckily both mother and daughter are both happy and healthy.

Roach said paramedics checked mother and child and because the family was prepared for a home birth anyway, both were allowed to stay at home.

“After it was all said and done, it was a pretty neat experience,” Roach said.