Three regional hospitals – Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez and San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington – welcomed in the first-born babies of the new year.

Meet Maxwell Bruce Belnap, the first born in 2020 at Mercy.

“We weren’t thinking we’d have the first baby,” said Maxwell’s mother, Nicole. “But it’s great.”

Nicole and her husband, Zach, said doctors set a due date of Dec. 31, so the couple knew it was going to be close whether Maxwell would be the first baby born at Mercy in the new year.

Nicole began contractions about 5:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, and the couple went to Mercy about 11 a.m.

Maxwell was born at 9:45 p.m. Wednesday. He was delivered by Dr. Megan Palmer with Four Corners OB-GYN. He is the couple’s first child.

“It was pretty smooth,” Nicole said.

Nicole works in graphic design, and Zach is a pilot for Flight for Life. The couple, who live in Bayfield, moved to the area about 4½ years ago.

As for having the first baby not only of the year, but of the new decade, Zach said, “I was hoping for that.”

Sayler Roy Perales was the first baby born in 2020 at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez.

“It all went very fast,” said Zhjade, 26. “My mom drove me here around 2 a.m., and he was born a little while later. It’s a big surprise, kinda surreal, that he’s the first baby of the year. I did not expect that. It’s fun.”

The healthy boy weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and was not originally due until 12 days later, but he decided to arrive a few days after his mother’s birthday.

On New Year’s Eve, she was watching the ball drop in Times Square on television with her parents, then had a restless night and was pacing about. Her mother, Sherry Lansing, noticed, and they decided to drive to the hospital to be on the safe side.

A quick delivery followed – a preferred natural birth with no pain medication, and there were no complications.

“She’s tough, we’re so proud,” Lansing said. “I got to cut the umbilical cord.”

The joke in the family is that a spicy meal of enchiladas on New Year’s Eve triggered the early birth of Sayler.

A Farmington family rang in the new decade with a little joy of their own.

Joy Warner was the first baby of the new year born at San Juan Regional Medical Center. Entering the world at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, beating out two other babies born later on New Year’s Day, according to the hospital.

Parents Perfinna Largo, 20, and Mark Warner, 21, welcomed their baby daughter, who weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces.

The hospital also announced there were 506 boys and 525 girls born at the childbirth center in 2019.