New Year’s babies ring in 2007

Kootenai County’s first baby of 2007 made her mother wait – and then kept her awake until the wee hours of New Year’s Day.

But the debut of Kahlei Christine Brown at 4:10 a.m. Monday at Kootenai Medical Center was well worth the roller-coaster, said Cassandra Brown, 30, of Coeur d’Alene.

“For me, it was a brand new beginning of a new year,” said Brown, whose baby was due last Wednesday.

Instead, the 7-pound, 15.5-ounce girl arrived five days late and barely two hours after Spokane’s first baby of the year, Owen Beckham Armstrong.

Owen, the son of Joshua and Shawna Armstrong, was born at Sacred Heart Medical Center at 2:08 a.m. Monday, the day he was due to arrive.

Owen’s parents managed to enjoy a New Year’s Eve dinner before Shawna Armstrong, a 33-year-old kindergarten teacher, went into labor about 7 p.m. Sunday. About seven hours later, the 8-pound, 8-ounce baby was born.

The 34-year-old father, a professor of leadership studies at Gonzaga University, said the arrival of the couple’s third child – all boys – went smoothly.

“She’s actually really good at this,” Joshua Armstrong said of his wife.

Big brothers are Aiden, 6, and Eli, 4.

Cassandra Brown entered the hospital on Friday, but it took until Monday to coax Kahlei into the world.

“She took her time,” Brown said.

If North Idaho trends continue, Kahlei will be part of a baby boom at the hospital, which saw births swell by nearly 20 percent last year. In 2005, 1,406 babies were born at KMC; last year, that number jumped to 1,655, said spokeswoman Karen Pearl.

Hospital officials speculate that the rise is fueled by local population gains.

About a dozen babies are born each Jan. 1 in Spokane County, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The last time there was a close race for the top spot was in 2004, when two babies were born in the first hour of the year.

Hospitals in both regions give small presents to the first babies and their parents. At Sacred Heart’s BirthPlace, the new mom is treated to a massage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The holiday makes a baby’s birth special both now and in the future, the new parents said.

“I think it will mean he’s always going to have great parties on his birthday, surrounded by family and friends,” Joshua Armstrong said.