Baby Jose Phillip Escobedo, also known as Joey, is pictured with his parents Jose and Jennifer Escobedo at Good Shepherd Medical Center a few hours after Joey was born.

Jose Phillip Escobedo may have been Umatilla County’s first baby of the new year, but he took a long time getting here.

“I was not expecting a New Year’s baby. I was expecting a tax break baby,” his mother Jennifer Escobedo said.

Escobedo’s water broke Friday morning, but little “Joey” didn’t arrive until 4:30 a.m. Monday. He showed up a healthy 7 pounds, 4 ounces and 21 and a half inches.

“I’m excited he’s out,” his father Jose Escobedo said. “I’m excited they’re both healthy and I’ll be even more excited when they get to come home.”

The baby is Jose and Jennifer’s first. They moved from Stanfield to Umatilla in September after buying a house in anticipation of his arrival.

Jennifer said she and Jose had bought a bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling cider to toast the start of 2018 and discussed how they wanted to spend New Year’s Eve together, not knowing they would be ringing in the new year in the maternity ward of Good Shepherd Medical Center.

“The bottle is still in the fridge,” she said.

Although Jennifer’s water broke on Friday, she didn’t begin going into labor — a phenomenon known as premature rupture of membranes, or PROM. The longer labor is delayed after PROM, the greater the chance of infection for the mother or baby, so Jennifer was induced. She said the hospital staff was very considerate in starting the “least intrusive” medications first and working up, but even after the final dose of Pitocin Joey was still being shy.

“For some reason he didn’t want to descend, so we decided to do a C-section,” she said.

During the C-section they discovered the umbilical cord had looped around the baby’s neck, but in the end, after all the drama, he was born healthy. Not knowing what extended family members’ sleep patterns would be like in the early hours of New Year’s Day, they sent out text messages with the good news.

“We figured if they were awake they would call, if not they would see it in the morning,” Jennifer said.

A tired but excited Jennifer was presented Monday afternoon with a teddy bear and a large basket of items for the baby, as well as a professional photo shoot, thanks to his status as the first baby of 2018 born at Good Shepherd. There were a few items in there for her, too, she was told.

“Is it cookies?” she asked jokingly, commenting that she couldn’t wait to eat solid food again.

Jennifer teaches preschool for Head Start in Boardman, and Jose works security in the area. The couple said they were looking forward to bringing home their first child in a couple of days.

Joey’s delivery doctor was Dr. Gary Trupp. of Good Shepherd’s Family Birth Center. In 2017, there were 410 babies born there.