January 01, 2009 04:36 pm
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Candice and Richie Slimp rang in 2009 with a new addition to their family.
The Slimps, of Joplin, along with their 4-year-old daughter, Gwen, welcomed Gavin Allen Slimp at 12:04 a.m. New Year’s Day. The 6 pound, 9-ounce boy is the Joplin area’s first baby of the new year.
Candice Slimp said that Jan. 1 was the original due date and that doctors had induced labor at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Freeman Hospital West.
I’m done. We have a boy and a girl,” said Richie Slimp.
“No, we need just one more. Maybe we can have that one on Christmas,” said Candice Slimp.
The Slimps received a baby medical kit and duck outfit from Freeman Health Systems and a gift from Babies “R” Us.
“Every year, it’s just of an exciting time for us at the hospital and we wait for the new babies,” said Heather Collier, Freeman Health System media coordinator. “We always do a gift from the hospital for the first baby and we also give a little gift to every baby that’s born on New Year’s Day. It’s sort of a special day anyway, even if you don’t get to be the first, you’re still a New Year’s baby.”
The first baby born at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in 2009 was Natilie Grace Devine, daughter of Tammy and Matt Devine, of Carl Junction. She arrived 4:43 a.m. on Thursday.
See Friday’s Joplin Globe for more on the area’s first babies.
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