Jan. 3, 2006 – It's a girl on St. Croix! It's a boy on St. Thomas!
The title for the territory's first baby of the New Year belongs to Kiena Alphonse, born at 2:12 p.m. Sunday at Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix. Delivered by Dr. Ronald Anders, Kiena weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces.
Nearly another full day passed before St. Thomas' first baby of the year, Sebastian Clay Garcia, made his appearance at 10 a.m. Monday at Roy L. Schneider Hospital on St. Thomas. He weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces. "It was a very normal delivery, and the baby is doing well," obstetrician Dr. Ronald Nimmo said in a news release.
Gregory Davila, spokesman at Juan F. Luis, said that Kiena's mother, Veronica Llanos, also delivered the first baby of the year in 2002, Kelvin Alphonse.
Davila said Llanos and and her daughter were released from the hospital Monday.
On St. Thomas, Sebastian and his mother, Holly Holmes, are expected to go home Tuesday. The father is Michael Garcia.
Hospital spokesman Michael Burton said in a news release that the last babies born at the hospital in 2005 were a set of triplets born to Zita Alexander and Dale Hendrickson.
"We think two might be identical twins, but we don't know for sure at this point," Dr. Margaret Sprauve, obstetrical/gynecological chief, said.
The triplet boys are named Dale, Dylen and Daryel. Their weights ranged from 2 pounds, 12 ounces to 3 pounds, 9 ounces. They were born prematurely at 32 weeks, but Sprauve said all are doing well and are off oxygen machines.
Alexander's obstetrician, Dr. Gordon Baird, said the mother, who is just over age 40, was surprised to learn about the triplets when she was 11 to 12 weeks pregnant.
Sprauve said the birth of triplets without the aid of fertility drugs is rare. This was the first set on St. Thomas since November 1992. The previous set was born 11 years earlier.
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