First baby
Avoca couple wins First Baby of the Year Award
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY LYNN BRENNAN/THE EVENING TRIBUNE Katrina and Dan Stryker of Avoca hold their new-born daughter, Shanna, at St. James Mercy Hospital in Hornell. The couple wins The Courier-Advocate's First Baby of the Year contest.

AVOCA - Dan and Katrina Stryker of Avoca already were the busy parents of three youngsters. But on Jan. 2, the couple's family got a little bigger - seven pounds, three ounces bigger to be exact.

On the second day of 2008, Mrs. Stryker gave birth to a baby girl in St. James Mercy Hospital in Hornell. The infant, named Shanna, was born at 6:24 p.m. and measured nearly 20 inches.

Shanna's Jan. 2 birth makes her The Courier's "First Baby of the Year" and qualifies the Stryker family for a wide range of products from area merchants who support the annual contest.

Mr. Stryker, a natural gas driller for Yost Drilling, said his wife began feeling contractions on Jan. 1, visited the hospital and was sent home pending further developments. The next morning she returned to St. James, was admitted and spent the rest of the day in labor.

"It was a long day," Mr. Stryker said.

Extended family members have been helping the couple since Shanna's birth, but Mr. Stryker noted the baby is waking only twice a night. "She's a good baby," he said. "All our babies were good."

Mrs. Stryker agreed. "It feels really good to have a new baby in the house."

The Strykers' other children are Shelby, 11; Ethan, 8, and Elias, 6. The family lives at 51 N. Main St., Avoca.