“It was a really, really long 36 hours,” Ariell said.

That lengthy birth may have been a blessing in disguise, as the newest addition to their family entered into the world in a fraction of the time.

“It was a really easy delivery — way easier than with the first one,” she said. “It was a pleasant surprise, honestly.”

After her first experience, “I was strapped in and ready for the worst, and it was over in six hours.”

At the end of those six hours, newborn Wren Leslie Rushton (middle name after her great grandfather), the couple’s second girl, became the first baby born in 2022 at Intermountain Bear River Valley Hospital at 4:34 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Not a bad way to start a new year.

Wren arrived eight days before her mother’s original due date of Jan. 13, which likely would have been late enough in the month that she wouldn’t have had the distinction of being the 2022 New Year’s baby in the valley.

Wren, who was delivered by Dr. Jon Gardner weighing a healthy 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long, joins her two-and-a-half-year-old sister, Hazel, who Ariell said is “totally obsessed” with the new addition to the family.

“It’s her baby,” Ariell said.

Ariell is a native of Tremonton, while Austin is originally from Ogden. The two were introduced by mutual friends and now make their home in Tremonton, with Austin working at Vulcraft and Ariell as a stay-at-home mom.