It's hard to say for now if Aidyn Honor Schwerin's mellow nature is hereditary or something he learned, but an argument can be made either way.

Swaddled in blankets and wearing a beanie that covered most of his dark hair, Santa Fe's New Year Baby was the epitome of calm Tuesday. Much like his parents' trip to St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

After her water broke at 3 a.m. on New Year's Eve, Darcy Schwerin, on the advice of her doula and her doctor, took it easy with her husband, Michael, and did what she could to muster a contraction.

"We went for a hike, played with the dog, went to the grocery store, watched a movie and had dinner," Darcy said.

They didn't, however, attend a pair of friends' New Year's Eve parties, something they had planned back when her due date was Jan. 7.

"I wasn't going to last until midnight anyway," said Darcy, 31, who works in marketing and graphics at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.

The hike turned into a casual stroll around the parking lot of the Dale Ball Trailhead. "We weren't going to go for a hike in case something bad happened," said Michael, 30, a massage therapist.

"We didn't climb Baldy or anything," Darcy said.

Dinner was eggs and toast and the movie a Cameron Diaz comedy that spent a lot of time on pause as the couple kept in touch with the doula and doctor by phone. They went to the hospital at 7:30 p.m., and an hour later her contractions were five minutes apart.

Midnight arrived, and the nurses said something that didn't register with the Schwerins right then. "They said, 'Oh, you're having the New Year's Baby,' and I'm like uh-huh," Darcy said. Michael thought it meant the kid would be born that day — not Santa Fe's first of 2008.

Both said breathing classes they took at The Birthing Tree Cooperative under doula Abby Bordner paid off during the intense moments. A doula provides physical and emotional help during childbirth. "It taught us to trust the experience a little more," Michael said.

Aidyn arrived at 12:35 a.m. weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces and measuring 19 3/4 inches long. Grandparents Steve and Nancy Sandstrom and Aunt Kristen Sandstrom arrived just an hour later from their homes in northern Wisconsin.

His middle name, Honor, "is just something we hold in the sense of everything we do, so it just seems to fit," Michael said.

For his being the first this year, Aidyn's family will get a rocking chair with a plaque, but Darcy was more focused on her new baby than the door prize.

"I can't believe this is mine," Darcy said. "It's mind-blowing."

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.