Leap Day baby born at home

Sarah Witt of Palisade snuggles with her six-day-old daughter, born on Leap Day, Feb. 29, at home, with her sister's teen-age friends in the next room. Sarah is a stay-at-home mother to Krystall, Romeo, Dana, Cory and Dawn. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

Krystall's pretty dark-eyed mother, Sarah, just smiles as she tells the story about her youngest daughter's entry into the world last Friday -- she seems to take it all in stride.

Sarah said she had had false labor off-and-on since Jan. 14, her doctor had already sent her home more than once, and the baby wasn't due until March 14. She had had false labor, too, with her son, now 51⁄2 years old, so, despite her contractions throughout Friday, Sarah said, she continued to prepare for the horror fest on Friday night that her daughter, Dawn, planned to celebrate her 13th birthday Saturday, March 1.

As the houseful of young teenagers was picking out movies, Sarah said, she slipped off to use the bathroom, and much to her own horror, she discovered the baby's head crowning.

As odd as Sarah's next statement seems, knowing about her daughter Dana's birth -- in the front seat of Sarah's mother's car, just outside the emergency room door at Community Hospital of McCook seven years ago in July -- it makes sense. "I immediately headed for the bathtub, because I remember how hard it was for Mom to clean the front seat of her car after Dana was born," Sarah said, with a knowing grin. "I have a tendency to plan for things like that -- to prepare for the 'what ifs' -- and I knew the bathtub would be easy to clean," she explained with a giggle.

About two minutes elapsed from the time that Sarah realized her contractions were the real thing this time until the time her new daughter was born, she said.

Dawn came to check on her, Sarah said, and her face "turned white as a sheet, and her friends went dead quiet when Krystall let out her first cries."

Sarah reports that one of Dawn's friends asked, "Did I hear what I think I heard?," and Dawn replied, "That depends on what you think you heard." The friend said, "A baby?" and Dawn said, "Yep, a baby."

Dawn called her grandmother, Sarah's mother, Colleen McVicker, who arrived with the bundle of sheets and blankets that she had packed in her car -- Colleen said she was prepared this time, just in case another baby was determined to be born in her car, she laughed.

The Palisade ambulance crew showed up, summoned by Dawn, who insisted that she ride with her grandmother to the hospital in McCook -- the horror fest birthday party could be rescheduled another time.

"I'm afraid I gave them a horror fest of a different type," Sarah laughed. "I guess I gave all of them a life lesson."

Rodney Hunt, a member of the ambulance crew, cut Krystall's umbilical cord, and Sarah and the baby were transported to the hospital in McCook.

Krystall Rayne had been born at 7:50 p.m., Friday, Feb. 29, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and measuring 193⁄4 inches long. Mom and baby are back home in Palisade, both doing well, although Krystall wears a cast on her right leg to correct a club foot deformity.

"She's a good baby," Sarah said Wednesday, although she has her days and nights a little mixed up. "Sometimes she's so quiet, I almost forget she's here."

Krystall shares her Feb. 29 birthday with her great-grandfather, the late Alvy Witt, who was also from Palisade. "We celebrated his birthday Feb. 28," Colleen said, and it wasn't until later in his life that she learned his birthday was really Feb. 29.

Sarah said that she figured they would celebrate Krystall's birthday on Feb. 28, too, but birthday-girl Dawn put a stop to that. "She wants to share her birthday with the baby," Sarah said, so the family will celebrate both girls' birthdays on March 1, except every four years when Krystall will have her own special day.

Sarah is quick to point out that she never planned to have a Leap Year Feb. 29 baby, although she had thought about the possibility and she had given up on ever having a prestigious "New Year's Baby."

"All I had planned that day was the horror fest for my daughter and her friends," Sarah said. She explained that the mother of one of the boys had called earlier in the day to double-check on party plans and Sarah said she told her, "Nothing will spoil it unless I go into labor."

Sarah said Krystall's first name comes from a character in the "Left Behind" book series. Krystall's daddy, Christopher Dirk, of Kansas, came up his little girl's middle name, Sarah said.

Krystall is the new granddaughter of Colleen and Melvin McVicker of Palisade and Pam Towery of Salina, Kan. She is the great-granddaughter of Ruth Moreau of Lincoln.

Her siblings are Dawn, now 13; Cory, nine; Dana, who will be seven in July; and Romeo, who turned five in August. Dawn considers her new sister "her birthday present," Sarah said, and forgives her mother for not being able to take her to a horse sale in Imperial. "This makes up for missing the horse sale," Sarah laughed, kissing the dark locks on top of her new daughter's head.