New Year's Day brings bundles of joy

SANDPOINT — Bonner General Hospital staff deliver hundreds of babies a year, but they don’t always greet a new life on the first of the year.

At the dawn of 2012, however, they welcomed two newborns into the world.

Will, a boy weighing 7 pounds and 5 ounces, was the first baby in the county to be born in 2012.

He was followed by Kylissa, a girl weighing in at 5 pounds and 15 ounces.

Bonner General Hospital marketing and communications manager Tarah Neujahr said the parents requested their newborns’ last names remain undisclosed.

“We’re always looking forward to the first baby of the new year,” Neujahr said.

Kylissa’s birth proved particularly special for parents Melissa and Kiyoki.

As an soldier in the Army, Kiyoki is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. However, his superiors allowed him leave to be present at the birth of his child.

The parents and their new daughter are spending the first few days of the new year together as a family before Kiyoki’s scheduled departure for North Carolina on Thursday.

While the birth of any child is a cause for parental celebration, Neujahr said newborns arriving on the first day of the new year is rare enough to be particularly notable.

“There are some years when it will happen and some years when it won’t,” she said. “It’s off and on.”

To put the odds in perspective, hospital staff delivered 344 babies in 2010. Given that rate of delivery, Neujahr said New Year’s Day baby deliveries are always an exciting occurrence.