PORT ANGELES — A baby girl who beat her scheduled due date by a week was the first reported birth in Clallam County in 2013, while the year’s first reported birth on the North Olympic Peninsula was in Port Townsend.
Noelani Dailey was born to Stevie Martinez-Cruz at 6:41 a.m. Tuesday at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
Amelia Moon Spindler, soon to be of Bainbridge Island, arrived at 4 a.m. at Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend.
The baby — who weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 19 inches long — was born to Drew and Annie Spindler of Bainbridge Island.
Noelani Dailey — who weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces, and was 21 inches long — wasn’t due until this coming Monday, said her mother.
But each of Martinez-Cruz’s two other children also arrived a week early, so Noelani’s early arrival wasn’t a surprise, she said.
“I started timing contractions at 7:47 p.m. last night, and Noelani was born at 6:14 a.m.,” Martinez-Cruz said.
“She was a little stubborn at first,” the new mother said.
Martinez-Cruz was born and raised in Port Angeles.
The baby girl is expected to go home with her mother today to join older siblings Kaytlin, 4, and Nason, 7.
With a Dec. 18 due date — at two weeks overdue — Amelia was in no hurry to enter the world, said Annie Spindler, 32.
“Two weeks late, well worth the wait,” the new mother said Tuesday afternoon.
“It makes for a happy new year,” she said.
The Spindlers’ 51-hour labor ordeal began at 1 a.m. Sunday as an attempted home birth in Bainbridge Island, said Drew Spindler, 29.
After more than 10 hours of labor with little progress, the decision was made to go to the hospital, he said.
“It was a real long couple of days,” he said.