First Vermont Baby
Born at Gifford
New Year’s Day

Gifford Medical Center welcomed the state’s first baby of 2008. Six-pound, 13-ounce Leland Mason Clyde Estabrook was born at 2:06 a.m. on Tuesday to Channia and Westley Estabrook of East Randolph.

Leland was an unlikely New Year’s baby.

"We were not expecting to have the first baby of the year at all," Westley Estabrook said Wednesday.

The baby boy—the family’s second—was born 26 days early. Channia Estabrook wasn’t due to give birth until Jan. 27, but when husband Westley returned home for his dinner break on New Year’s Eve, he found his wife in labor. Westley works a 3-11:30 p.m. shift in Gifford’s Environmental Services Department.

"She said, ‘I’ve got to go the hospital. I’m having really strong contractions,’" Westley Estabrook recalled.

The family arrived at the Randolph hospital’s Birthing Center a half-hour later at about 8 p.m. Leland was breech and delivered by cesarean section just after 2 a.m.

The family is now at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, N.H., where Channia Estabrook is recovering from her surgery and Leland is receiving oxygen. He is having respiratory problems, but is expected to be fine. "He’s doing all right," Westley Estabrook said from the New Hampshire hospital.

Leland will remain at Dartmouth until at least Sunday, when the family, including three-year-old Chason, hopes to welcome their Vermont New Year’s baby home.