PORT ANGELES — Miya Isabella Allen, in making a grand appearance, gave her folks a happy New Year.
Miya was born at home in Port Angeles at 8:36 a.m. Friday. So far as the Peninsula Daily News knows, she is the North Olympic Peninsula’s first baby of the new year.
No new babies arrived on the first day of 2010, said spokespeople at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, Forks Community Hospital and Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend.
A Port Townsend hospital spokeswoman also said on Saturday that no one was in labor at the hospital, and so it was unknown when the first baby of the year would be born in East Jefferson County.
Miya’s parents Raechel and Ben Allen, grandparents Nancy and Mark Shamp and Gail and Wally Hinderer and 13-month-old sister Aiya, all of Port Angeles, welcomed Miya into this world, with help from midwife Karla Morgan.
“It was a wonderful home water birth,” in a birthing tub, Morgan said Friday after reporting it to the PDN, adding that Raechel’s labor lasted just four-and-a-half hours.
Raechel’s due date was Christmas Eve, but Morgan didn’t consider New Year’s Day a late delivery.
‘Healthy and beautiful’
“Only 4 percent of babies are born on their actual due date,” said the midwife, who has been practicing in Port Angeles and Sequim areas for a couple of decades.
Maternal grandmother Gail Hinderer described Miya as “healthy and beautiful.”
Later Friday afternoon, Ben Allen served as spokesman for the family. Both he and Raechel are commercial fishermen, “and now she’s Mom,” twice over, Ben said.
“We’re feeling good; a little bit tired,” he said. “We started at about four this morning.”
Miya is not only a New Year’s arrival, he said. She is also a gift for their second wedding anniversary, which was New Year’s Eve.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
Reporter Tom Callis contributed to this report.