New year delivers joy for area couple

Baby Gabrielle has already figured out something it takes some young ladies years of charm school to master -- how to make a stylish, attention-getting entrance.

Gabrielle Cecelia Enos is the area's first baby of 2003, and the first child of Michael Enos and Julie Kern of New Hamburg, Mo. Doctors at Southeast Missouri Hospital delivered the 6-pound, 9-ounce baby girl at 4:58 a.m. Wednesday.

"She's perfectly healthy," said a tired-but-luminous Kern. "She's just so beautiful."

When the engaged couple got to the hospital, having the first baby of 2003 was the last thing on their minds, said Enos, a Wal-Mart employee.

"But it wasn't long until nurses started telling us it might be us, and we thought that was pretty neat," said Enos, as he cradled his sleeping new daughter on the edge of his wife's hospital bed.

Kern said they hurried to the hospital at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. "I was having slight contractions," she said.

"Slight?" asked Enos. "You weren't acting like they were slight."

Regardless of the specifics, soon after they got to the hospital, they started getting updates from nurses in the obstetrics unit.

"We were getting reports about the other parents and how we were doing," Kern said. "I kept thinking, 'How much do I need to push to win this thing?' It's neat. It will be something we can talk about with her. Not everybody can say that their baby was the first of the year."

Carmen Cox, an obstetrics nurse at Southeast, said nurses get a kick out of working New Year's Day, too.

"It's a little more exciting," she said. "It's a race to see who's going to go first."

The hospital gave Gabrielle a gift basket, which included a stuffed giraffe, a baby blanket, other toys and $60 in certificates to the gift store.

Both parents admitted they wanted a baby boy, something Gabrielle might be chagrined to hear about when she's older.

"It's the man thing," said Kern.

"I just wanted somebody to hunt with," Enos said. "I'm just hoping I can interest this one in sports."

The new parents said they were still perfectly happy with what they got, even though it was unexpected. They plan to marry, and Kern graduates from college in May.

Both said they plan to give Gabrielle a good life.

"She is so wonderful," Kern said, adding that her own birthday is just a few days away. "It's an early birthday present and the best one I could ever ask for."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137