Babies welcomed the new year just three hours after midnight
MID-CITY — While most revelers were busy popping champagne corks, two local families were busy popping out babies for the new year.
Tylene De Vine was sitting in her Silverlake home, waiting for her fiancé, Alexander McDonald, to return with a bag of hamburgers from In-N-Out when the big moment came.
After 15 hours in labor, De Vine gave birth to her first child, Roderick Daegan McDonald De Vine, weighing 7.6 pounds, at 3:03 a.m. on Jan. 1. He holds the proud title of being the first child born at Saint John’s Health Center in 2007.
“It’s the best new year’s resolution I ever made,” De Vine joked on Tuesday.
When De Vine learned her due date was set for Dec. 27, she originally anticipated having a Christmas baby. It never occurred to her the baby would be born on New Year’s Day. The notion didn’t even hit her during labor.
“At the time, you don’t think about the date, you’re thinking about the pain,” she said. “When we were saying ‘Happy New Year,’ it made sense that he could be the first baby of the year at Saint John’s.”
For little Roderick, being born on the first day of the year has set the tone for the rest of his life, De Vine said.
“It makes him a star early in his life.” Over at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, they welcomed their first baby at 3:21 a.m., when Lorena Gillen gave birth to her fourth son, Cael Adan Gillen.
Lorena Gillen was celebrating New Year’s Eve at her mother-in-law’s house at Cheviot Hills, knowing that she could go into labor at any moment considering her due date was on Jan. 1.
“I told my family to be prepared because they were going to come celebrate with me at the hospital,” Gillen recounted on Tuesday.
Gillen went into labor around 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and gave birth to a “nice healthy boy” via C-section, according to Dr. Gene Parks at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.
Gillen and her husband, Cesar Gillen, both of Lake Balboa, are also the parents of an 8-year-old boy and 7-year-old twins.
“When we all do the countdown every year, Cael can also do a countdown for his birthday,” Lorena Gillen said. “It’s definitely going to be a day we will never forget.
Babies are born in the hospital every day, but there is something extra special about welcoming a child on New Year’s Day.
“It’s always special because it’s a new beginning and a new year,”said Irene Bristol, nursing director at Saint John’s Health Center. “For the parents, it signifies a fantastic new beginning.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.