A bundle of joy, and a basket full of goodies

Colleen and Jaime Baro were basking Monday in the glow of their new and first-born baby, Andrew.

“He’s got my hair,” Jaime Baro said with a smile of the thick, dark brown waves that framed Drew’s cherubic face.

“He definitely has my blue eyes,” Colleen Baro added, as family sat around the new mother’s bed in the postpartum room at Providence St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.

After a 17-hour labor that turned into a C-section, the family had finally felt the joy of a healthy baby.

On cue, Michelle McKendry Coleman, a regional manager for 10 privately owned Crumbl dessert stores in Orange County, surprised the family as she arrived bearing sweet gifts.

Since September, she has rewarded the first baby born each month at St. Jude in Fullerton.

Baby Drew showed off a competitive side as he beat out seven other newborns Dec. 1, entering the world at 12:29 am.

“I had a desire to give back to my community in a personal way,” Coleman said after giving the Baro family a gift basket that included a onesie for Drew, a sweatshirt for Mom, the quintessential children’s book, “Goodnight Moon,” and an assortment of Crumbl cookies.

“This hospital holds a special place in my heart,” Coleman said. Flash back 28 years and she was giving birth at the very same hospital, where both of her girls were born.

“New babies bring joy, and I wanted to honor the mothers,” she said.

Nurses on the ward are also given a box of cookies to share.

“I look forward to this every month,” postpartum nurse Angelica Andrade said.

“Mothers are here for only 24 to 48 hours and it can be overwhelming for them,” she said. When the cookies arrive, “moms get recognized and feel special.”

Back in the Baros’ room, the family pondered who would give Drew his first cookie someday.

“It will probably be Auntie,” they all agreed.

Meanwhile, Coleman can’t wait to deliver treats to the first baby of the new year.