And baby makes three: Granddad, mom also born on New Year's Day

Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 4, 2006 at midnight

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She wasn't Denver's first New Year's Baby, but Ellison Leigh Grimm set a milestone Sunday when she became the third person in her family born while the world launched a new year.

Her parents had placed pink newborn shirts and booties on her crib for her expected arrival Jan. 7, but the infant decided to join the family early on Jan. 1 - the same date her mother, Jennifer Grimm, 29, and her maternal grandfather Ted Dyer, 51, were born.

"We were expecting her later. But she made a run for it and barely made the deadline," Jay Grimm, 30, the infant's father, said. "I'm just happy we got a healthy girl."

Ellison was born one minute before Jan. 2, making her appearance at 11:59 p.m. on New Year's Day. She weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and was 21 inches tall with a "head full of hair."

While the couple did not plan the birth to be on Jan. 1, they had a hunch the baby would come earlier than doctors anticipated.

"All day, the cat kept being around the hospital bag," Jay Grimm said. "It's like it was telling us, 'Here's your bag.' "

A relative gave the family a digital camera and told them to "open the present before heading to the hospital." And, while the rest of their family and friends were celebrating New Year's outdoors, the couple opted to play board games and watch movies at home instead.

At about 6:30 p.m., Jennifer Grimm began to feel contractions and headed for the hospital.

"We knew there was a possibility that it would be a New Year's baby," Jennifer Grimm said Tuesday afternoon while recovering at her west Denver home. "But I was actually hoping it (the birth) would be far removed from the holidays."

While growing up, Jennifer Grimm's parents celebrated her birthday and her brother's Dec. 30 birthday during the summer to ensure their special days were not overshadowed by Christmas and New Year's festivities, she said.

The couple plans to do the same with Ellison.

Soon after Ellison's birth, Jay Grimm called Dyer to tell him the news.

"He was pretty excited," Jay Grimm said, quoting his father-in- law saying, "'Are you kidding me?' "

Bill Grimm, 64, Ellison's paternal grandfather, called the birth of his granddaughter on New Year's Day "wonderful" but said he was more overwhelmed by being a grandfather for the first time.

The New Year's Day birth brings questions as well as comfort to the young couple.

"People ask us, 'What do you think this means?' " Jay Grimm said.

He just shrugs and tells them, "We're still trying to figure it out. I don't know," he said. "But it's reassuring that the way things are, are meant to be for us right now."

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