GRAND FORKS – Expectant mom Hailey Thomas was scheduled to be admitted to the new Altru Hospital on Monday, Jan. 20, to be induced, but her baby had other plans.
Loucyll Valin is the first baby born in the $500 million facility, which officially opened Sunday, Jan. 19.
At 9:15 a.m. that day, a little more than three hours after the Emergency Department opened, she and Christian Valin arrived after her water broke, and prepared for the birth of their first child. Loucill was born at 12:05 p.m.
The baby “was marching to the beat of her own drum,” Thomas said. “She’s stubborn like him,” she added, smiling at the proud papa.
This was all while nearly 200 patients were being transferred from the old to the new hospital on Sunday, a nearly-six-hour process, so it was a bit chaotic, Thomas said. “There was a lot of ‘bear with us, we’re moving.’ But they handled it really well.”
The baby was in a breach position, “and they tried to turn her,” Thomas said, “but she was having none of it,” so Loucyll was born by C-section. She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and measured 22 inches long.
Now, in the peaceful quiet of their fourth-floor patient room, the couple is focused on their new little bundle of joy, sleeping soundly in their arms.
“It’s scary,” Valin said. “But as soon as (the birth) happens, you just fall in love and you know everything will be fine. As soon as I held her, my worries disappeared.”
As for the new mother, “I’m still just taking it all in,” Thomas said. “It’s kind of surreal.”
As the first mom to give birth in the new hospital, Thomas received a gift basket with assorted items, including swaddling cloth, to wrap the baby tightly, mimicking the tight space of the womb; a rattle; a white-noise machine; a bib; a onesie; and nasal and diaper spray.
“She’s already had her first bath, and her first poop a little while ago,” Valin said. By Monday afternoon, he had already changed her first diaper.
Thomas said she thought this might be a challenge, because “he has a weak stomach – he gags at everything. But he handled it very nicely.”
The couple, both 22, were high school sweethearts in Sealy, Texas. They were encouraged to move to Grand Forks by Valin’s brother, who has lived here for years.
“He said this is a better place to be,” Valin said. “A better environment to raise kids.”
Valin moved here from Texas four months ago and found work within the first two days, he said. He’s holding down two jobs, as a product technician for Aaron’s Rent to Own store and with Hugo’s Family Marketplace.
Thomas, who moved here last month, plans on being a stay-at-home mom, she said.
Baby Loucyll was born in one of the two operating rooms on the same floor as her patient room, one of 44 patient rooms in the Family Birthing Center of the seven-story hospital.
In 2023, 1,424 babies were born at the former Altru Hospital, which is part of Altru Health System, one of the largest health systems in the region. The former hospital is scheduled to be demolished in four stages, starting sometime this year and spanning about 18 months, officials say.