<\/p>\n
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Annie Jo Kathryn Lake, the first baby born in 2015 at Southwest Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n
Parents Chris and Tiffanie Lake, of Cortez, had a premonition they would be in the running for the honor, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was due Jan. 6, but she came early,\u201d said Tiffanie of her first child. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting and will make her birthdays really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about her being the first, but didn\u2019t think it would happen because the due date was a week away,\u201d Chris said. \u201cYou never know; it\u2019s a nice surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple arrived at Southwest Memorial on the evening of New Year\u2019s Eve, but were sent home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said it would be a while, then her water broke later that night, and we arrived back here at 12:30 a.m.,\u201d Chris said.<\/p>\n
After \u201ca lot of pushing\u201d at 9:35 a.m., Jan. 1, the couple welcomed their new, healthy baby into the world. She weighs 6 pounds, 6.5 ounces, and is 18.5 inches long.<\/p>\n
The Lakes were married in March, and this is their first child together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all happened so fast,\u201d Chris said.<\/p>\n
Caite Lake, Chris\u2019s 15-year-old daughter, was there for the occasion, and plans to help babysit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have family coming out, and are both taking time off,\u201d Chris said, who has lived in Cortez since 1994.<\/p>\n
He works as an IT tech for Durango Schools, and Tiffanie teaches algebra at Montezuma-Cortez High School. She recently moved to Cortez from Blanding, Utah.<\/p>\n
Haley Leaonard, marketing director for Southwest, presented the couple with prizes, including a $100 gift certificate from City Market.<\/p>\n
Down the road in Durango, nobody could beat Evelyn Rose Gosney, whose 12:02 a.m. birth at Mercy Regional Medical Center was the first baby of the year for Colorado.<\/p>\n
It was a tight race. Kathleen Marie Hathaway, of Denver, was born at 12:14 a.m. New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
New Mexico\u2019s first New Year\u2019s Day baby, Angelo Oros, was born at San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington. He was born at 12:00:45 a.m., weighing in at 7 pounds and 14 ounces.<\/p>\n
The Denver Zoo also announced an early arrival \u2013 a zebra born early Thursday. Mother Crestone and her baby are being kept in a warm barn until the weather warms up. A naming contest is planned.<\/p>\n