For Delta couple, area's first New Year's baby brings 'nice surprise'

Victoria Johnson and her husband, Clark, never expected to have a New Year’s baby.

But their baby girl, Caroline Grace Johnson, had other ideas. She came into the world at 3:40 a.m. Sunday at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau, the area’s first baby of the new year.

She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 21 inches long, her mother said.

“We were not expecting it at all,” Victoria Johnson said as she cradled her baby girl in her arms.

Victoria Johnson said her original due date Friday, but she did not go into labor that day, so she was scheduled to be induced Wednesday, but delivery came sooner.

Caroline Grace Johnson, the first baby of 2017 born in Cape Girardeau, sleeps in her mother's arms at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 1.Ben Matthews

Depending on how you look at it, the baby was late or early, said Johnson, who went into labor about 6 p.m. Friday.

“That is how we spent our New Year’s Eve,” she said.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said Sunday afternoon of their baby girl’s New Year’s Day arrival. “I think we were expecting more of a Christmas baby.”

Johnson said she and her husband never dreamed they would have the area’s first baby of 2017.

“That was a nice surprise,” she said as her husband quietly looked on.

The Delta couple’s 5-year-old son, Carter, still was assessing the new addition to the family more than nine hours after the baby’s arrival.

“I didn’t want a sister,” Carter said, even as he continued to pay close attention to the new addition to the family.

Johnson jokingly suggested Carter could change diapers and feed his baby sister. Carter emphatically replied, “No.”

Carter also voiced some concern his baby sister might pose a risk to his toys.

“She might puke on my toys,” he said.

Johnson said Caroline’s arrival “is very exciting.”

The fact it occurred on the first day of the new year made it better, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

1701 Lacey St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.