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PLAINS TWP. — Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center welcomed the first reported Luzerne County New Year’s Day birth for 2016.
Nikole Ace and Alejandro Wickham of Mount Pocono borough, Monroe County, are the proud parents of Alejandro II.
Ace didn’t know people made a big deal out of the first baby to be born in Luzerne County every year, so she wondered why the labor and delivery nurses were getting excited.
“We didn’t know what they were talking about,” Ace said. “People were saying, ‘Maybe you’ll have a New Year’s baby.’ We just thought (they meant) the day.”
Ace had labor induced around 5 p.m. Thursday and, after 14 hours, Alejandro was born at 7:21 a.m. Friday, tipping the scales at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches long.
After the delivery, a nurse presented the newborn with a homemade knitted snowman hat.
Ace, a stay-at-home mom, will have her hands full. Along with baby Alejandro, she and Wickham, who have been together for three years, have 15-month-old twins, Alexander and Nikolas, at home. Ace also has a 9-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship.
The 9-year-old, Ace said, was a “little disappointed” at first that the new baby was a boy, but the family is happy.
Wickham, an employee at PepsiCo., Quaker Tropicana Gatorade Division, Mountain Top, said he was “very thankful” for the “awesome nurses” and the care they’ve received at the hospital.
Wickham was in the delivery room the whole time, and “surprised there was less pain from her.”
Alejandro has been a calm and quiet baby.
“The only thing he didn’t like was when the nurses poked him,” Ace revealed.
Ace said that not much was planned for the family’s New Year’s Eve celebration, so Alejandro’s birth didn’t present any major disruption in the family’s holiday.
“We couldn’t do much because I was pregnant,” Ace said.
Baby Alejandro had “eaten a bit” since the birth and Ace’s breakfast, after delivery, was a muffin, oatmeal and a banana.
“It was early,” Ace said. “I hadn’t eaten for 24 hours.”
Ace is hopeful little Alejandro will get to meet his older siblings on Sunday, their reported discharge date, because she and Wickham are keeping the children at home.
Alejandro wasn’t the first baby for the Geisinger Health System, as a baby was born shortly after midnight at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Montour County, according to Alysha Davis, corporate communications for Geisinger Health System.
It could not be confirmed that Baby Boy Wickham was actually the first baby born in Luzerne County in 2016, as Commonwealth Health does not release any information on babies born at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, citing concerns about child abduction.
