Pittsburgh hospitals see first newborns of 2018
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday already promised a big night for the Handshue kids of Pleasant Hills. Never before had all three youngsters stayed up together to ring in a new year, after all.
New York’s Times Square glowed on the TV. The family was about to tear into the traditional holiday pretzel.
Then, about 11:40 p.m., their mother, Christina Handshue, felt her water break. Eleanor Rose was on the way. Three siblings were about to become four.
“I’m still in shock,” Mrs. Handshue, 37, said around lunchtime the next day. She expected the baby would arrive well before or after her Jan. 2 due date — but certainly not New Year’s Day.
Rushed to West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield by husband Jim Handshue, 37, she delivered Eleanor Rose at 3:17 a.m. Monday. Their healthy infant, weighing 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and measuring 19.5 inches long, appeared to be Pittsburgh’s first-born in 2018.
The couple had just enough time to wish their older children — Ryan, 8, Maggie, 6, and Jane, 3 — a happy new year before hopping in the car and hauling off to the hospital, where roughly 10 to 20 babies a day are born. Mr. Handshue navigated the trip in about 20 minutes, perhaps eluding a traffic light or two in the process.
“There were a few of them where I said: ‘Gun it! Go!’” Mrs. Handshue said.
Mr. Handshue figured the bittercold weather tempered traffic around Highmark First Night Pittsburgh 2018, helping to make for a clear route. About 12 hours later, he said, he was about to fetch the siblings to meet their sister.
As it happens, Mr. and Mrs. Handshue got engaged precisely 12 years earlier — Jan. 1, 2006. He said it’ll be easier to celebrate young Eleanor’s birthday on Jan. 1 than if it had fallen on Christmas.
“I hope she cherishes it,” Mr. Handshue said of the timing. “But it probably won’t be until later in life.”
In the meantime, Mrs. Handshue expected all the older kids to be “good helpers” with their sister.
“This is a wonderful story to tell
that’s positive from the getgo,” Mrs. Handshue said.
About four hours after Eleanor arrived, another maternal hub — MageeWomens Hospital of UPMC in Oakland — saw its first delivery of 2018. Markia, 28, of Braddock Hills gave birth to McKenzie there at 7:06 a.m., a week before her due date.
“I just want to get up and dance,” said Markia, who was ebullient in recovery several hours after the delivery. She asked that her last name not be published.
She said McKenzie’s uncle gave her the child’s first name.
The delighted mother said she had “never been so excited in my life.” McKenzie, born healthy at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and nearly 21 inches long, joins two brothers: Ra’Meire, 7, and Ra’Von, 5. Markia’s sister Brittney helped her through labor.
“It’s going to mean a lot,” Markia said of the Jan. 1 birthday. “You’re born on New Year’s, so every year you know your birthday is going to be awesome.”