Atlanta’s first babies of 2009 arrive just seconds after midnight

Who was metro Atlanta’s first baby of 2009? At two hospitals, babies entered the world at virtually the same time — seconds after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day.

Both babies arrived a few days earlier than expected. Both have two older siblings. And both newborns were able to find time to nap as their tired moms answered phone calls from family members and the media about the year’s first babies.

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Kimberly Smith / ksmith@ajc.com

Nicole Parks of Austell has a tender kiss for her baby, Sariah Ny’ell Parks, born just seconds after midnight Jan. 1 at WellStar Cobb Hospital.

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Kimberly Smith / ksmith@ajc.com

His moment of fame is greeted with a big yawn by Grant Martin Garcia as he poses at Piedmont Hospital with parents Amy and Michael Garcia of Atlanta on Thursday.

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As Michael and Amy Garcia welcomed their third child — a boy — at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital, Nicole Parks delivered a girl at WellStar Cobb Hospital in Austell.

Sariah Ny’ell Parks arrived days shy of her Jan. 6 due date, but tired mom Nicole Parks, 26, wasn’t complaining. Parks, of Austell, was already in labor when her sister brought her to the hospital at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

A few hours later, hospital nurses were checking back and forth between Parks and another mom at the opposite end of the hall to see who would deliver first.

“I was watching the clock while I was pushing,” Parks said Thursday from her hospital room. Baby Sariah beat the competition by a few seconds, hospital officials said, weighing in 6 pounds, 6.3 ounces.

Doctors in the two delivery rooms compared monitor tapes, just to be sure which baby came first.

Sariah is healthy and doing well, according to her mom.

At Piedmont, Grant Martin Garcia wasn’t due until Jan. 9. But because his older siblings Joseph, 5, and Caroline, 3, each arrived 10 days early, Michael and Amy Garcia joked that baby No. 3 would follow suit.

Baby Grant cooperated. The Northlake couple headed to the hospital on New Year’s Eve around 9:30 p.m.

“We were with friends and were trying to act as normal as possible,” Amy Garcia, 35, said from her hospital room.

The delivery went fairly quickly and at two seconds after midnight, according to the hospital, a little boy was born following much speculation from hospital staff.

“They were saying, ‘Is it going to be a tax deduction for 2008 or the first baby of the New Year?’” said Amy Garcia.

Grant weighs 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is doing fine, his mom said.

Garcia and Parks didn’t mind sharing the “first mom” honors, and had hopes of getting some rest before heading home.

“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” said Parks. “I’m just glad she’s here.”

— Staff photographer Kim Smith contributed to this report.