Ashley Koopman's second child wasn't due for another week, so she spent the final day of 2022 playing in the snow with her toddler son. But when contractions started around 8:15 p.m., she and her husband, Cameron, started joking about the New Year's babies who make the news each year: How crazy would it be if their baby girl was the inaugural baby of 2023?
At midnight in a room at Maple Grove Hospital, that became more than a jest. With just one push from mom, Isabelle Alice Koopman, weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces, was born. She's believed to be Minnesota's first baby of the new year.
"It seemed like it was up to her," said Koopman, who said she wasn't expecting such a fast delivery. "She wanted out, and she wanted to be special. She, of course, was special already, but now she's extra special."
Isabelle spent her first few moments like any healthy baby — crying and then cooing as she snuggled up with her mother for the first time. Doctors, nurses and hospital staff, many of them wearing festive New Year's hats and headbands, congratulated her parents on delivering the "New Year baby."
"Everyone was just excited and shocked that it happened right at midnight," Cameron Koopman said as he, Ashley and little Isabelle drove home to Greenfield from the hospital on Monday. "It was just a really fun atmosphere."
Once word spread, the couple's phones started buzzing with well wishes and congratulations. Ashley estimates that she got about "10 times" the messages that she would have gotten had Isabelle's birth not made the evening news.
Another coincidence of the night Isabelle was born: One of Ashley's friends, who typically works as a nurse at the hospital just a few shifts a month, happened to be working when Ashley checked in. She was able to stay with the family and be in the room when Isabelle was born.
The Koopmans said they're excited to tell Isabelle about her birth story once she's old enough to understand. They'll likely show her the news stories and tell her about how she arrived in the first moments of a new year.
