From Deseret News archives:
Happy new year, baby!
Little Lainie shows up in time to be Wasatch Front's first of '05
By the time photographers and reporters showed up at LDS Hospital Saturday afternoon, little Lainie Hunt was nonchalant, if not downright bored. She dozed through her first photo shoot, oblivious to the fact that she had become a star simply by showing up early.
Lainie, the fourth child of Chelsy and Todd Hunt of Riverton, beat out the area's second place baby by 29 minutes, making her entrance at 12:28 a.m. Rafael Kye Robin Davis-Arroyo arrived at 12:57 a.m. at Davis Hospital in Layton, where personnel thought he was victorious in the annual first-baby race for a few brief hours.
Seven pound, 11-ounce Logan Cannon, who was delivered 35 seconds after midnight at Dixie Regional Medical Center, apparently was Utah's first for 2005. His parents are Steven and Heather Cannon.
The first 2005 baby in Utah Valley was born at American Fork Hospital at 1:15 a.m., more than eight weeks premature. Amia Hope, who weighed 4 pounds 5 ounces, was taken to Utah Valley Regional Hospital. She is the daughter of Amy and Thomas Harper of American Fork.
There was a 3:14 a.m. birth at McKay-Dee Hospital and a 3:37 a.m. at Ogden Regional Medical Center; a 4:18 a.m. at St. Mark's and a 5:37 a.m. at Salt Lake Regional. Most of the area's other potential first babies chose to sleep in.
Gone are the days, apparently, when the arrival of the Wasatch Front's first baby means a host of prizes from area businesses. But this year both Lainie Hunt and a second baby at LDS Hospital did receive a bunch of goodies from Blockbuster Inc. The movie rental giant kicked off its new policy of no late fees by giving a special "It's OK to be a Little Late" gift package to the second New Year's baby born at hospitals in 40 U.S. cities.
At LDS Hospital that was Ashlynn Schalk, who managed to be both a little late and very early. Ashlynn, who was due April 14, arrived at 5:32 a.m. New Year's Day. Because she weighed less than 2 pounds at birth, Ashlynn is in the hospital's newborn intensive care unit. Her parents are Kristin and Chris Schalk of Colorado Springs, Colo., who were visiting Kristin's parents in West Jordan for the holidays.
"We said Happy New Year to each other in the car" on the way to the hospital, said Kristin's tired mother, Denise Goodwin, Saturday afternoon.
The Hunts, on the other hand, lost all track of time during Chelsy's 12-hour labor and didn't realize it was 2005 until after Lainie's arrival. Originally due on Jan. 7, Lainie put her mother into labor about noon on the last day of 2004.
Chelsy and Todd Hunt expected their new baby to arrive in time to be last year's tax deduction but are thrilled just as much by the fact that she won a competition neither they nor she even planned to enter.
Contributing: Rodger L. Hardy, Associated Press
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com
