EVERETT — Samantha Arroyo called her husband at work Thursday evening. She was having contractions. The Lake Stevens woman was two days past her due date.
“We made an agreement. If the contractions were five minutes apart for 30 minutes, or her water broke, I’d come home so she didn’t have to labor without me, mainly for my peace of mind,” Marcos Arroyo said.
His wife, pregnant with their second child, had contractions Monday and Tuesday, but they came and went.
“She just wasn’t ready,” Samantha Arroyo said.
Her husband waited 15 minutes before calling her back Thursday evening. She’d had four strong contractions during that time. He headed for home.
His wife of nearly 12 years was calm when he walked through the door. She asked him to make them some smoothies. Before he could turn on the blender she told him to make those smoothies to go.
The pickup truck was packed. Their firstborn, 3½-year-old Virginia, stayed home with her grandparents, who had arrived from Montana earlier in the week.
The Arroyos, both 33, headed to Providence’s Pavilion for Women and Children in downtown Everett. Their daughter was born at 1:31 a.m. Friday, making her the first baby delivered in 2016 at Snohomish County’s largest hospital.
“Was she the first baby of the new year?” her grandma, Cheryl Lewis, asked upon seeing a Herald reporter and photographer talking to her son in-law in a hospital waiting room.
She clapped her hands and smiled at the news. Lewis is convinced that the little girl waited for her grandparents to get into town before making her entrance.
She is their ninth grandchild.
There were 4,516 babies delivered at the hospital in 2015. The last was born at 11:39 p.m. Thursday, nurses said.
The Arroyos joked that they were hoping their daughter would have been born before midnight so they could claim her on their 2015 taxes.
“She was trying,” her mom said.
She weighed in at 8 pounds 7 ounces and is 19.75 inches long. She was bundled up and cradled in her mom’s arms Friday morning when she and her sister met for the first time.
“Can I touch her?” Virginia asked.
The little girl in pigtails and pink stroked her sister’s tiny hands. She looks like you, Samantha Arroyo told her oldest. Trying out the big sister role, Virginia asked if the baby was hungry. Maybe she would like some of her dried mangoes slices.
“Remember she doesn’t eat what you do yet,” her mom said.
The Arroyos hoped to bring their new daughter home Saturday. There was one matter that still required their attention.
“She needs to be named before we leave,” Samantha Arroyo said.
As of Friday afternoon she and her husband hadn’t settled on what to call their beautiful daughter. It hadn’t been for lack of trying. During the pregnancy Marcos Arroyo pored over the Social Security database listing names dating back to the 1800s. Relatives chimed in with suggestions. Samantha Arroyo had tried out names she’d read in books.
“She can’t be named after a dragon,” her husband said.
Dad doesn’t want anything too trendy or popular. It needs to compliment her two middle names. How does it translate in Spanish?
“We’re going to spend the day changing diapers and thinking of a name,” Marcos Arroyo said Friday afternoon.
Hours later, after some rest and getting acquainted with the baby girl, the proud papa sent The Herald an email.
Seraphina Lynn Lewis Arroyo.
Welcome little one.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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