Babies share 1:11 on 1/11 birthday numbers

Maybe one isn't such a lonely number after all.

For three Las Vegas Valley families, ones turned up in bunches Tuesday as they welcomed new babies into the world.

Christopher James Lee was born at 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 11 at St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena campus, in Henderson. At the very same minute, Lylah Lynne Barnes entered a world full of ones at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in the southwest valley.

Neither baby came by cesarean section, so there were no surgical shenanigans involved with the birth time.

At 7 pounds and 18.5 inches long, Lylah was the first daughter born to Shayna Chavez. She was delivered by her own grandmother, Dr. Nancy Long, who also delivered Chavez's two boys.

Chavez said she went into labor early Tuesday and was only vaguely aware that she might wind up delivering at 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 11.

"It was very easy," Chavez said of the birth.

At 8 pounds, 7 ounces, a 20-inch Christopher was cheered into the world by a delivery room full of staff members with their eyes on the clock.

Mother Chrystal Lee was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, but she went to the hospital a day early because she wasn't feeling quite right.

Her doctor, Rebecca Tyre, decided to admit her right away and get the process started.

Lee said the number 11 thing started out as a joke. Shortly after 1 p.m., when it looked like the baby would come at any second, someone said, "Well, he was almost a 1:11 baby."

That's when Lee and Tyre decided to try to hit the number right on the dot.

Lee said she might not have been in such a playful mood if not for the epidural and the four previous births under her belt.

As it turned out, Christopher came right on time with just one push, Lee said from her hospital bed Wednesday.

"I'll remember it as the funnest one," she said of the birth. "The nurses were all cheering. It created a lot of excitement on the floor."

Both sets of mothers and babies are doing fine. Lylah and Chavez were released from the hospital Wednesday. Lee is slated to go home with Christopher today .

This was the second noteworthy birth of 2011 for Tyre and St. Rose Siena. Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer McDonnell said the doctor also delivered the valley's first baby of the new year, a healthy boy named Nathan Bert Coe who was due Jan. 11 but who showed up instead about 15 seconds after midnight on Jan. 1.

Then there's Macey Lee Sims, a 7 pound, 14 ounce, 20.5 inch girl born Tuesday at 1:01 p.m. Pacific Standard Time more than 1,300 miles away in Nebraska.

Macey is the 11th grandchild of Henderson resident Bob Sims. She also is baby No. 1 for Sims' daughter, Marissa.

The ones and elevens don't stop there.

Sims, who will celebrate his 54th birthday on 11/11/11, swears that little Macey was born in Room 111 of the hospital in northeastern Nebraska.

"And guess what I found out: They just got approximately 11 inches of snow," he said. "I'm glad it's not all sixes or something."

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.