Sawyer Wayne Reilly is first baby of 2017 born in Harford County

Jill and Dan Reilly had hoped their youngest child, Sawyer Wayne, would be born Dec. 31, but he took an extra hour and a half to come out, which made him the first baby born in Harford County in 2017.

Sawyer Wayne Reilly was born at 1:35 a.m. Sunday, New Year's Day, at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air after his mother was in labor for 17 hours. He was 9 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long,

"It's pretty neat that he's getting a little bit of attention already, at just a day old," Jill Reilly, 35, said of her son being Harford County's New Year's baby.

Dan Reilly, 37, joked that it wasn't something they gave much though to in the midst of labor, though.

Sawyer alternated between napping his mother's arms and father's arms, with the occasional cry, as the Reillys spoke with The Aegis at the hospital late Monday morning.

The baby wore tiny gray sweats, socks and a knitted cap and sucked on a green pacifier.

"He's very calm, doesn't cry much – unless he's hungry – he sleeps a lot," Jill said.

Sawyer is the third child of Jill and Dan, who live in North East and have been married since 2008. They also have a 7-year-old son and 14-month old son, and Dan, 37, has an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship,

Dan works for Southwest Airlines, in Baltimore, in the airline's provisioning department, which handles snacks and drinks for passengers. Jill teachers seventh-grade math at Havre de Grace Middle School; she has spent 14 years with Harford County Public Schools, all at Havre de Grace Middle.

The couple lived in Aberdeen before moving to Cecil County about two years ago. They crossed the Susquehanna River to have Sawyer at Upper Chesapeake, since Jill gave birth to her older sons there.

She said the staff at the hospital's Family Birthplace is "wonderful."

"They take great care of you and the baby," Jill said. "I wouldn't have my baby anywhere else."

She said her 11-year-old stepson and 7-year-old son visited Sawyer, and they are "very" excited to have another brother.

Jill has about six weeks of maternity leave before she returns to work. She said her students had been suggesting names for the baby.

"They're really cute when they're trying to give me suggestions," she said. "Some of them are very thoughtful in the names they're coming up with."

The couple picked their youngest son's first name, Sawyer, because they liked the name. and his middle name, Wayne, comes from Jill's father.

She grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, but noted her father would go boating on the Chesapeake Bay and put his boat in at Havre de Grace.

"I fell in love with the town," she said.

Jill learned about HCPS when officials conducted interviews on campus when she was a student at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa.

She was offered a job at Havre de Grace Middle, "and I've been here ever since." She started teaching during the 2003-2004 school year. She has taught in areas such as special education and sixth and seventh grade math.

"At some point, I've taught every subject," Jill said.

She and her husband reported they have been in good shape since the birth. They planned to leave the hospital Monday.

"We were able to get some sleep and get ready to go home and get adjusted to having a house full of children," Jill said.