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LOGAN — While others were partying and welcoming in the new year, Bethany and Scott England found themselves suddenly preparing to welcome the first baby born in 2022 at a Utah Intermountain hospital.
Piper England was born at 1:03 a.m. at the Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital, but Piper's arrival wasn't a part of her parents' original New Year's plans.
"I wasn't due until Jan. 20, but my water broke last night about 10 p.m. and we arrived at the hospital about 11 p.m. knowing I'd need a Caesarean section," mom Bethany said in a Saturday news release from Intermountain.
The on-call doctor, Dr. Brynn Schumacher, got the call that Piper was on the way and drove to the hospital. "The Englands are a really nice couple, and it just turned out that the baby was born early in 2022," Shumacher said in the release.
Despite the earlier than expected birth, Piper is a healthy baby, measuring 7 pounds and 19 inches at birth.
"Everyone at the hospital was super helpful and kind, and everything went really smoothly," dad Scott said in the release. "We had so many people here to help us and we were all laughing along the way."
Piper joins her now older brother Oliver, 3, and her family is happy to have narrowly dodged another December birthday.
"We have a lot of family birthdays in December, so my mom told me, 'No more December birthdays!'" Bethany said in the release. "Luckily, Piper made it to January by just over an hour."
