Spokane area welcomes first baby of the new year in the wee hours

Long after the fireworks had exploded, the boisterous yelling had quieted and the excitement fizzled, Crystal Morford had an unexpected celebration of her own.

Ariah Loray Morford was born at 1:44 a.m. Jan. 1 at Deaconess Hospital, making her the Spokane area’s first baby of the new year. She weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long.

“She’s doing really good,” Morford, 25, said as she talked about her newborn over the phone from her hospital bed Sunday afternoon. “She’s healthy and calm and really easygoing.”

The mother of three had little time to wonder whether her daughter could earn the first-baby crown, precisely because she wasn’t due for another week. But when she started feeling pain Saturday morning, her doctor had her come to the hospital.

Once at Deaconess, Morford started to progress and went into labor about 10 p.m. Then, it was a quick delivery.

“And here she is on New Year’s Day,” Crystal Morford said while nursing Ariah. “She’s actually my biggest, too.”

In order to take the crown, Ariah was born right in the nick of time. According to Kevin Maloney, media relations manager at Rockwood Health System, another baby was born 30 minutes later at Valley Hospital.

Crystal Morford said she was looking forward to 2017 being a better year for the family. She’s currently unemployed and still wants to finish college.

But now that Ariah is born and appears to be perfectly healthy, she said, it feels appropriate to expect better things in the new year.

“I’m hoping it will be better,” she said. “I’m hoping I can stay on a straight path and get a job or into school. Because nowadays, when you struggle, you struggle.”