GREENVILLE — Little Easton Frederick-Alan Hemmelgarn was ready to make his way into the world and was born just 4 1/2 hours into 2016, making him the first child born in the new year at Wayne HealthCare.
His mother, Meridian Hemmelgarn, said she went into labor at 3:30 a.m. and gave birth to her son at 4:31.
“It took an hour,” she said. “I was playing video games [when the pain came].”
While the delivery came easy, the pregnancy did not.
“I was sick all of the time,” said Hemmelgarn, whose mother and friends brought her to the hospital.
She knew she was going to have a son, she said, and indicated that her due date was Jan. 3.
Her doctor was Dr. Carlos Menendez.
For having the first baby of the year, the Hemmelgarns received packages from Wayne HealthCare, the Wayne Hospital Auxiliary and the Special Beginnings Birthing Center unit at the hospital.
Hemmelgarn, a current stay-at-home mother, said her son weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long at birth.
Also the son of Eric Hemmelgarn, the infant also has a sister, Alina, 2, and two half-sisters, Hayle, 11, and Hunter, 10.
Grandmothers are Barbara Prasuhn and Brenda Borgerding, and great-grandparents include Fred and Iris Prasuhn.
According to nurses in the Special Beginnings Birthing Center, two more babies were also born on the first day of the year.
