Nevada County might have had to wait a few days for the first babies of 2005 to arrive, but the parents were thankful their healthy newborns decided to hold off until better weather.

A boy, Terry Julian Nelson, and a girl, daughter of the Lord family, were the first hospital-birth and home-birthed babies of the year.

Danielle Dorsey-Ivey and Terry Nelson had been expecting their son's arrival since before the holiday storms.

So on Monday afternoon, when the baby was more than two weeks overdue, Dorsey-Ivey said doctors at Sierra Memorial decided to induce labor. After a smooth 7 1/2-hour labor, Terry Julian was born just before midnight.

He weighed slightly less than eight pounds and had a full head of spiky dark hair.

When their son was being washed off, Dorsey-Ivey said the nurses told her and Nelson that Terry Julian was the first baby of the new year.

"I was surprised, I thought there would have been several other babies born before him," she said. The newborn comes from a long line of Nevada County residents. His mother said his birth makes him the seventh generation in her family to claim the county as home.

When photos were snapped of the newborn on Wednesday in her hospital room, Dorsey-Ivey was feeling well and smiling, but the newborn seemed upset about the attention and started crying.

Dorsey-Ivey said it was the first time that he has been that way, describing her new son as being "real quiet. He just looks around. He is really content."

Dorsey-Ivey and Nelson were planning to spend their first night at home in Lake Wildwood with their new son Wednesday.



First home birth

Just about eight hours after Terry Julian was born at the hospital, the Lord family welcomed their newborn daughter to the world at their snow-covered home in Cascade Shores.

"We were going to have a home birth; we didn't want the storm to be a factor, really," said the baby's father, Travis Lord.

"I knew that as soon as the baby would be born, the sun would come out," he said, saying they have not yet decided on a name for their daughter who was born weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces.

Travis Lord is a second-generation jeweler by training but said he recently decided to go back to school for Internet engineering after getting laid off.

"We are just trying to make our way," he said.

The birth was attended by local midwife Vanita Lott and birth assistant and doula Elizabeth Sunshine Osteen.

"The mother really wanted a home birth last time. They were pretty psyched," Lott said. This is the second child for the Lord family - they also have a 4-year-old daughter, Venus Opal.

The baby's birth also marks the 164th delivery as a midwife for Lott, who has been a registered nurse since 1983. She said she was expecting another local mother to deliver earlier than Mari Lord because the other woman had a due date of New Year's Day.

"But as of today, she is still pregnant," Lott said Tuesday.

Travis Lord's parents, Jan and Gary Lord, were also at the couple's home to witness the birth of their granddaughter. Jan Lord said that despite some complications Tuesday afternoon that took Mari Lord to the hospital, her daughter-in-law was feeling well on Wednesday and was headed home.