Photo by Louis DiNicola Kristen Bigelow-Talbert and Andy Talbert of Montpelier hold their new baby boy, Azrael Matthew, born on just after midnight on New Year’s Day at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph. The family chose an allnatural childbirth. RANDOLPH – Kristen Bigelow-Talbert of Montpelier felt labor pains at work at Bi-State Primary Care on New Year’s Eve, but they were so sporadic she was sure it was just “practice labor.”

At 2 p.m., she visited the Montpelier Police Department for a car seat inspection and, at 3, she and husband Andy Talbert went to the Gifford Health Center at Berlin for a scheduled midwifery appointment.

The midwife, Amanda Breed, wasn’t convinced that Bigelow-Talbert was experiencing Braxton Hicks, the couple says. The midwife quickly determined the mother-to-be was indeed in labor and already partially dilated.

The couple went home, packed and arrived at Gifford Medical Center’s Birthing Center in Randolph around 7 p.m.

“From the time that we got there to the time she started pushing was an absolute blur,” says Talbert, 24. At midnight, “She looked up at the clock and said ‘Happy New Year’ and started pushing.”

At 12:15 a.m., Azrael Matthew Bigelow-Talbert arrived – a healthy 7- pound, 11-ounce baby boy believed to be the first baby born in Vermont in the new year and the new decade.

For the couple, the best gift was their son. “He’s so beautiful,” says his mother. “Andy and I are both so very, very happy that he’s actually here.”

And while they weren’t necessarily aiming for a New Year’s baby, having their first child all naturally and on the first day of a new year and a new decade was an added gift.

“I’m very excited,” says Bigelow-Talbert, 26. “Everyone I’d tell my due date was New Year’s Eve and they’d say maybe you’ll have the first baby of the year.”

The proud new father adds: “He was going to be a celebrity to us and now he’s a celebrity to other people too.”