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Steamboat Springs — Jen Kerr noticed the size of the bathtub right away.

"The tub is huge!" Kerr, about 40 weeks pregnant, said Tuesday while touring Yampa Valley Medical Center's expanded Family Birth Place. Kerr and her husband, Ben Clark, got one of the first looks at the expanded center, which opened May 9 as part of a $13 million project that also includes an expansion of the hospital's surgical services space.

The expanded Family Birth Center is slated for completion in July. The expansion will double the center's number of rooms from five to 10, with five labor and delivery rooms and five post-partum rooms. Seven rooms are open now.

Crews broke ground on the expansion in May 2008. Hospital spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said that during the height of construction, the center was at times down to three rooms, causing some staff shuffling and creative use of space for patient care.

"This is a long-awaited thing," Polumbus said about the expanded center.

For new mothers and their families, it likely will be worth the wait.

The family waiting room is now closer to the patient rooms in the Birth Place wing. Each patient room has a flat-screen TV, refrigerator, Tempur-Pedic bed, sleeper sofa, warmly painted walls and decor, and extensive cupboards and cabinets that conceal much of the medical equipment.

"The intent was to make it, when you walk in, not feel like a hospital room," registered nurse Alethea Stone said. "When you first come in, in labor, you won't see any medical equipment at all."

And, yes, there is the large Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom of each labor and delivery room.

"If you had a huge belly, your belly would be totally underwater," Stone said - after quickly stepping into a tub Tuesday to try it out for herself.

The expansion comes during a decade-long baby boom at Yampa Valley Medical Center. In 1999, 259 babies were born at the hospital. That number has increased nearly every year since, increasing to 431 babies in 2007 and 430 in 2008.

The expanded Family Birth Center already has welcomed its first baby. Gavin Wittlinger was born at 10:55 p.m. Wednesday to local parents David and Jen Wittlinger.

As of Friday evening, Kerr and Clark still were awaiting the birth of their new son. Clark said Kerr is "doing all right, just anxious for it to happen."

When it does happen, they'll be ready - Clark said they "have had the car seat in the car for a month," and the couple attended a birthing class during Kerr's pregnancy. On Tuesday, they asked hospital staff questions including whether they could bring music to the birth - yes - and about procedures once Kerr goes into labor.

There is one thing Kerr and Clark haven't decided - their future son's name.

"We're going to wait until we meet him," Clark said.