Jaxon Miller is Hutchinson Health’s first baby of 2022. He’s pictured with his parents, Sami and Nathan.
Following Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the family of Sami and Nathan Miller of Hutchinson still had one more big day to celebrate: The Jan. 3 birth of their son, Jaxon.
Weighing in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and 20 inches long, the child born at 9:04 a.m. is the couple’s first. He’s also Hutchinson Health’s first baby of 2022.
Sami, 24, and Nathan, 25, first met when they were in their late teens living in Illinois. Their first introduction was on social media.
“He added me on Facebook,” Sami said. “We started chatting. I found out he lived in a town near where I did. I was working at a Taco Bell and he’d come through the drive-thru to talk to me. That’s where he asked me to be his girlfriend. So that was kind of cute.”
“I thought she was beautiful,” Nathan said. “And just really nice. She was funny, too.”
“I thought he was pretty funny when we were talking, and he knew how to make me smile,” Sami said.
They went to the movies for their first date but don’t remember what was playing. They do remember, however, that Sami spilled her Dr. Pepper “all over” Nathan. It didn’t change anything. They dated over the next few years until 2017 when members of Nathan’s family moved to Minnesota, and he followed. They decided to stay together over the long distance, and by 2019 Sami followed Nathan to the land of 10,000 Lakes. In April 2020 they moved together to Hutchinson and bought a home.
“We’ve got a roomier house to grow our family into,” Sami said.
They were married in their backyard in Hutchinson in October 2020. Reflecting on the qualities made each other an ideal spouse to raise a child together, they both spoke of the support and encouragement the other offered.
“Any decisions I make in life, he’s got my back,” Sami said. “He’ll give me his opinion but not force me to do anything. In delivery, any time I was in pain he’d wake up and be right at my side. And he helped with delivery and was really supportive. ... And he still makes me happy — makes me laugh. He’s fun to be around.”
They won’t be alone as they raise their firstborn. One of Nathan’s sisters and his parents are both still in the area.
The name Jaxon was picked without much struggle, but only after a change of direction. They had originally settled on the name Ava.
“We had a girl name picked out for the longest time,” Sami said. “We found out it was a boy, and we had to start the naming process over again.”
She gave Nathan a book of 10,000 names.
“I’m just flipping through it,” Nathan said, “and I land on Jaxon and I say, ‘Jaxon’ out loud to Sami, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, but J-A-X-O-N.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I read.’”
“It kind of clicked,” Sami said.
More babies could follow down the road, but time will tell.
“Nathan wants to have at least three kids,” Sami said. “I told him we’ll see how the first one goes.”
Parents Shawn and Fiona Smith of Hutchinson hold their new daughter, Cedar. She was born Jan. 5 at Glencoe Regional Health and was Glencoe’s first baby of 2022.
Everyone likes a good surprise. On Jan. 5, Fiona and Shawn Smith of Hutchinson got two: they found out they had a new daughter, and that she was the first baby born at Glencoe Regional Health in 2022.
“We were told a little after she was born, so we had no idea,” Fiona said about her little girl, Cedar Elowyn Joy Smith, being Glencoe’s first baby of 2022. “I thought for sure there was already a baby born. She was actually due on (Jan. 3), so she was a little late.”
Cedar was born 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 20 inches long in what Fiona described as a “really fast and really intense” delivery that took less than an hour. It went so quickly that only two nurses were present when the baby arrived.
“It came so fast that the doctor wasn’t able to get in the room and Shawn didn’t make it because he was at home with our dog,” Fiona said. “We expected it to go longer. (The nurses) were like, ‘Don’t push, don’t push!’ and I said, ‘I can’t not push, the baby’s coming!’”
The baby arrived healthy, as did Shawn, and when it came time to naming her the couple had a few ideas in mind. Fiona wanted an “old-school” delivery, so the couple had not found out their baby’s gender until the day she arrived. So they were prepared for both possibilities.
“We had some names that we had in mind for both (genders), but we didn’t have anything set because we wanted to meet the baby and bond a little bit first before we decided,” Fiona said. “Cedar was the name we had liked for a girl, and we liked Declan for a boy.”
In the end, they went with their first choice for a girl’s name, Cedar. They liked the nature-based theme of the name, and both said they enjoy the smell of cedar. As a carpenter, Shawn also works with cedar regularly constructing fences.
“We thought it was a good, strong name and very unique,” Fiona said.
Due to COVID regulations at Glencoe Regional Health, mom and dad were the only people allowed to see Cedar in the hospital. When the couple spoke to the Leader Jan. 6, they were preparing to leave the hospital so Cedar could meet the rest of her family, including her sisters, December (12) and Quinn (7), as well as her grandparents, Shawn’s mother from Faribault and Fiona’s parents from Brownton, Herbert and Kirsten Dean.
“They were very excited,” Fiona said about her older daughters. “They wanted to be here (in the hospital), but with how policies are they couldn’t. But we video called them and they’re super excited.”
Not knowing the gender of their third baby until it was born, Shawn admitted he had hopes for a little boy to balance things at home with his wife and two other daughters, but he’s still very proud of his third baby daughter and has accepted his fate as a girl dad.
“It’s my destiny to be surrounded by beautiful women I guess,” he said. “I’m OK with that. I love her all the same and I’m very excited to see what she does in this world.”
