First New Year's Baby

A Sioux Falls family missed out on another tax deduction for 2012. That's because Erin and Mike Wescott had the first baby of the new year early Tuesday morning.

We said it was our first all-nighter in many years for New Year's Eve just different circumstances," Erin Wescott said.

It wasn't exactly how Erin and Mike Wescott planned to spend New Year's Eve. After all, baby Cohen wasn't due for a few more days.  But he arrived at 3:36 Tuesday morning, becoming the first baby born in Sioux Falls for the new year.

"It's fun, I think it's something special for him.  It's one of those things you're going to love or hate your birthday on a holiday, but him being the first one born, I think will be really special in the future," Erin said.

Cohen weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and joins big brother Aidan, who's not sure what to think of all this media attention.  

The nursing staff at Sanford Hospital was hoping Cohen would wait 'til the clock struck midnight.  But mom and dad were hoping for another tax deduction for 2012.

"We joked about it, the nurses wanted us to have 12:01, Mike wanted it at 11:59," Erin said.

"When you saw the clock go 11:30, 11:40, 11:50," Mike said. "We just wanted a healthy baby."

Erin knew when she went into labor there was a pretty good chance they would have the first New Year's baby and might be doing some unexpected television interviews.

"I knew that's what happens when you have the first baby of the year.  I wasn't expecting labor to go so quickly, because it wasn't so fast with this one.  So I was surprised; I thought someone would beat us," Erin said.

Both mom and baby Cohen are doing fine. They get to go home Thursday.

The first baby born at Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls was born an hour and a minute later. Irelynn Edelman weighs just six pounds and 15 ounces.  She is 19-and-a-half inches long, and her mother and grandmother couldn't be more thankful for their New Year's Day miracle.