Kenzie Rae Miller arrived fairly late Wednesday but early enough to be the first baby born in 2014 at Mercy Regional Medical Center.
Kenzie Rae, 7 pounds, 20½ inches, is the daughter of Candace Etcitty and Josh Miller of Pagosa Springs. She arrived at 6:47 p.m. New Year’s Day.
Miller, 27, is a heavy equipment operator; Etcitty, 25, works at Wolf Creek Gift Shop in Pagosa Springs. Kenzie Rae is their first child.
The couple were in Farmington on Wednesday marking the holiday with her parents. In the early afternoon, she began to sense that the time had arrived.
They headed for Mercy where Kenzie Rae was delivered by certified nurse midwife Amy Ginn of Southwest Midwives and staff nurses at Mercy’s Family Birth Center.
Staff nurses presented the family a gift basket containing baby items, and Kenzie Rae was outfitted with a knitted red-white-and-blue cap with 2014 in gold.
Mercy has celebrated the first birth of the year for as long as anyone can remember, hospital spokesman David Bruzzese said Friday. It’s a tradition, he said.
Bruzzese said 912 babies were born at Mercy in 2013.
daler@durangoherald.com
