Annie and Matt Dimick with baby James Wayne, born shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 2022 (Courtesy/Salem Health)
Annie Dimick had cocktail meatballs ready to go for a family friend’s New Year’s Eve party when she and her husband Matt decided to make a quick stop at Salem Hospital.
It was around 6:30 p.m. and Dimick, 37, was heading into her final week of pregnancy. She wanted to get checked out after she woke up from a nap with a headache and high blood pressure.
Instead, the Dimicks ended up welcoming their first child, James Wayne, shortly after midnight, making him the first baby born at the hospital in 2022.
“We thought we were just going to go to the hospital, get checked out, baby looks fine, you look fine, go home. We didn’t really plan at all for this,” Dimick said.
The Dallas, Oregon family originally had an induction scheduled on Jan. 8. They opted not to find out the sex of their baby before birth, instead calling their child “Little Bear” before his arrival.
His name has family ties: Wayne is the middle name of both Annie and Matt’s fathers. James is the name of Matt’s grandfather, who died in 2019 when Matt was deployed to Djibouti with the U.S. Army National Guard.
Dimick said she’d hoped to have an unmedicated birth, but when they arrived for the New Year’s Eve checkup, her baby’s vital signs didn’t look good. His heart rate was elevated, and he wasn’t moving. Doctors wanted to do an emergency Caesarean section.
Dimick said the obstetrician came into her room around 10 p.m. and told her, “So, you’re having your baby tonight.”
“Then it was a joke: ‘Oh, let’s do it this year so we can have the tax break,” Dimick said. “We actually really were trying to have him born before midnight.”
But it took longer than expected for a spinal block to numb her before the procedure, pushing James’ birth time to 12:21 a.m.
James Wayne Dimick, the Salem area’s first baby of 2022 (Courtesy/Annie Dimick)
Dimick said the reality that they’d had their first child didn’t set in until the next morning, and it hadn’t occurred to them he might be the first of the new year.
“We didn’t even think about it until they came in later that morning to do our check up with this awesome box of goodies,” she said. Inside were gifts to welcome 2022’s first newborn: a baby blanket made by women at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility plus books, swaddles and other items from Salem Health.
Now back at home, James Wayne sleeps in a bassinet that’s been home to three prior generations of Dimicks. Matt got it from his grandparents’ home in Mt. Shasta and restored it, Dimick said.
“I’m so glad he’s here. I’m so glad he’s thriving,” Dimick said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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