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Welcome to the world, Ashton

Ashton Hiroshi Coates is the county's first baby born in the new year. The diagnosis? Six pounds, 1 ounce; 17 inches; two happy parents.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published January 3, 2006

	[Times photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes]
	New mom Eriko Coates, 36, introduces a 1-day-old Ashton Hiroshi Coates to Yukari Moon of Sun City Center on Monday at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills.

ZEPHYRHILLS - The new year was 19 hours old, and still nobody had been born.

Finally, at 7:18 p.m. Sunday, Ashton Hiroshi Coates made his appearance at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, the first baby to be born in Pasco County in 2006.

He was three weeks early.

"I guess he wanted to come in with a bang," dad Jerry Coates, 35, said Monday.

Coates and his wife, Eriko, 36, had just watched the ball drop at Times Square on television when the baby started stirring. Mrs. Coates' water broke about 1 a.m., and the couple drove the short distance to the hospital.

After a long night with little progress, Mrs. Coates went into hard labor about 4 p.m. Sunday. Two hours later, the baby wasn't budging.

But a successful caesarean section brought Ashton into the world at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and 17 inches long. His dad was the first to hold him.

Mrs. Coates said she hated to not be awake for her son's birth, but she wore a peaceful, weary smile as she held him in her hospital room.

"It's the happiest time in my life," she said. "He's healthy, and everything's fine."

With friends and onlookers hovering over him, Ashton slept peacefully in his mother's lap, bundled in a blue outfit that could hold two of him. His face was flawless, with dark red lips and eyes that fluttered open on occasion.

Jerry Coates has worked in the hospital cafeteria for 15 years. Nearly three years ago, he met Eriko, who was volunteering at the hospital while in the United States to learn English. She was planning to return to her native Japan.

Instead, they were married.

Dr. Terri McEndree, the obstetrician who delivered Ashton, came in for a visit Monday afternoon. She said the staff was buzzing all day Sunday at the idea of delivering the county's first baby.

In fact, the Zephyrhills hospital was the only one of the county's three obstetrics units to even have a mom in labor on New Year's Day.

Still, there was no guarantee.

"At any point, somebody could walk in 8 or 9 centimeters (dilated) and deliver in a few minutes," McEndree said.

After delivering upward of 500 babies, McEndree said the miracle of birth still fascinates.

"Whenever you think about the fact that two cells make a baby, it just amazes me when they come out perfectly."

--Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-6521 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6521. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 3, 2006, 01:57:16]