AUGUSTA — Trenton Leroy Salley Jr. won the distinction of being the first baby of the new year delivered at MaineGeneral Medical Center at 4:02 a.m. Monday.

The 7-pound 14-ounce infant was welcomed by mom Keira Washburn, dad Trenton Salley and his big brother, Kaiden Mercier-Washburn,who turns 2 next month.

While mom’s due date was Jan. 8, she had been in labor and in and out of the Augusta hospital since Thursday.

By Monday afternoon, Trenton Jr. slept peacefully in his mother’s arms with both of his hands covered with mittens and his dark hair covered by a stocking cap.

“He’s sleeping well and breast-feeding well,” Washburn said, as Kaiden attempted to climb onto her bed and made it with assistance from his grandmother.

Trenton Jr. had been fed, and his parents, who sat together on the bed, had caught a couple of hours of sleep earlier.

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“He’s a pound heavier than Kaiden and an inch longer,” Washburn said, wondering whether he’ll reach the height of his 6-foot-5 dad. Trenton Jr. was 21 inches long at birth.

Not far from the bed stood a large pair of tall rubber work boots, which Salley, who will be 19 shortly, wears in his work doing concrete foundation work for Mid-Maine Foundations.

Washburn, 19, said her job is taking care of the children.

The room on the maternity floor also held Washburn’s mother and brother, Kristina and Donovan Tracy, who had arrived Sunday from Kingsport, Tennessee, as well as Washburn’s father and step-mother, Michael and Tabitha Washburn of Madison.

One chair in the room held a large New Year’s basket with a number of gifts — blankets, diapers, clothes, a bracelet, etc. — for having the first baby of 2018.

“It was a race among the nurses on who was going to have the first baby,” Keira Washburn said. She was told there was a race among the hospitals as well and that a baby was born earlier Monday at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

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“Daddy and mommy are both great troupers,” Kristina Tracy said.

“It’s definitely an experience,” Salley said.

Dr. William George of Waterville Women’s Care stopped in briefly to check on Washburn.

He and another doctor were cross-covering for the weekend, and the other physician handled the delivery. “We get a lot of first babies,” George said.

Washburn, who graduated from Madison Area Memorial High School, said she and the baby will head home from the hospital on Tuesday, “fingers-crossed.”

The hospital delivered about 1,100 babies in 2016, according to Joy McKenna, the hospital’s director of marketing and communications.

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Elsewhere in Maine, a Monmouth couple, Jason and Anya, welcomed a son, Jaxon, at 3:30 a.m. at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Last names were withheld.

Mercy Hospital in Portland welcomed Valentino Giovanni Servizio, who was born at 6:27 a.m. Monday, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule to Christina DiBiase, 37, and Paul Servizio, 48, of Bath.

Two babies were born Monday morning at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor — one in a vehicle in the hospital’s parking lot at 11:39 a.m. and one inside the hospital at 11:52 a.m.

Born in the parking lot, Lucas Wayne Flood came into the world weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce, according to hospital spokeswoman Rebecca Volent. His mother is Jennifer Sicard-Flood.

The indoor delivery was Liam Thompson, born to Sarah and Luke Thompson, weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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