RUMFORD — Steve Bronish got the surprise of his life Friday morning when his daughter gave birth to a baby girl while standing in her driveway in Gray.

At 5:18 a.m., Abigail Cain delivered her own baby, Danica AnnMarie Cain, who weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 20¼ inches long, said Bronish, of Rumford.

Danica, who is named after race car driver Danica Patrick, was due Jan. 18.

“Abby had a doctor appointment yesterday, and the doctor said her baby would be here any time, but I didn’t expect she would be born in her driveway,” Bronish said from Mercy Hospital in Portland.

“It was 10 below out, and she had no help at all and out she came right in the driveway,” he said. “It’s quite an amazing story. I’m pretty excited.”

Bronish said he and his fiancée, Heather McLennan, got “the call” at 5:10 a.m. in Livermore that Abigail and her husband, Joseph Cain, were leaving the house to go to the hospital.

After taking her bags out to the car, Joseph went back inside to get another bag while his wife was talking to McLennan. Then, Bronish said, Abigail told McLennan she was going into labor, hung up and put the phone on the car seat.

Abigail had the passenger door open and was leaning on the seat, Bronish said.

“At the first contraction, she started laying on the horn for her husband to hurry up,” he said. “With the second contraction, she felt she had to push. She pushed and the baby came out while she was standing next to the car.”

He said Joseph came out of the house with the bag and heard a baby crying and knew it didn’t sound like the couple’s 2-year-old son, Tristan.

“He rounded the corner and there was mom and baby, all said and done,” Bronish said. “Joe said she yelled to him, ‘I have the baby! I have the baby!'”

The couple called for an ambulance, which took Abigail and Danica to Mercy Hospital.

“Mom, Danica and dad are all OK and perfectly healthy,” Bronish said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com