ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996               TAG: 9601020118
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER 

BABY ARRIVES AS FIREWORKS HERALD 1996

THE FIRST BABY of the new year in the Roanoke Valley is Miranda Renee Peggins, born at 12:02 a.m. The second was born only six minutes later when Jamie Taylor gave birth to Bree'anne.

The First Night fireworks were shooting skyward when Christina Peggins gave birth to her first child minutes into Monday at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.

Miranda Renee Peggins became the Roanoke Valley's first baby of the new year when she entered the world at 12:02 a.m. New Year's Day.

The second baby was born only six minutes later when Jamie Taylor gave birth to another girl at Lewis-Gale Hospital at 12:08 a.m. That baby was named Bree'anne.

"I could see them," Peggins said of the fireworks. "The whole hospital was rooting for me" to have the year's first baby.

Peggins' labor began at 3 a.m. on New Year's Eve. She went to the hospital at 4:45 p.m.

Peggins, 24, is head teller at the Brookside branch of the N&W Credit Union and lives on Tacoma Road in Roanoke. Peggins, who worked until Christmas, plans to take about six weeks off before returning to the job. A relative will take care of Miranda while she works.

"She's my pride and joy," Peggins said as she posed with Miranda. Nurses at Community Hospital tied a bow into Miranda's hair for her picture to be taken.

The baby weighed 6 pounds, 153/4 ounces.

Peggins said she had wanted a girl, but prenatal tests were inconclusive as to the baby's sex. "I had a feeling it was going to be a little girl," she said.

She was assisted in giving birth by her mother, Joyce Godfryt, and her aunt, Pat King. Her aunt works at the hospital.

Peggins was still tired Monday after her long labor. "That was hard last night," she said. "It got to the point where I was just exhausted." The thing she recalled about the birth was breathing with each contraction, the way she had been taught.

That is, until she heard the blast of the fireworks just before Miranda was born.

LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Christina Peggins with her daughter 
          Miranda Renee Peggins, the Roanoke Valley's first baby of 1996. The 
          6-pound, 153/4-ounce girl was born at 12:02 a.m. at Community 
          Hospital of Roanoke Valley. color.