The final day of 2024 was not comfortable for Aleah Hard Vandehey.
And then she wound up in Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital. The good news is that by the end of New Year’s Day, she was holding a baby – the first of the year for east Linn County.
Nearly 36 weeks pregnant, Aleah was experiencing false labor – or at least that’s what she thought.
“I had been going through prodromal labor for, like, two weeks. Tuesday (Dec 31), I kept having it,” she said.
She and her husband Caleb texted her midwife, Maggie Rex, for advice.
“She said, ‘OK, just try to relax,’” Aleah recalled.
That night, New Year’s Eve, “I was able to sleep a good amount, through all the fireworks and stuff,” she said. “But I kept waking up to contractions and stuff.”
The contractions continued on Wednesday, and they were shifting to cramping – or so she thought.
“We were still convinced this was false labor,” Caleb said, chuckling.
“I had Maggie come over and she’s like, ‘OK, just try to relax,’” Aleah said.
She and Caleb went over to her parents’ house, where she tried soaking in a tub full of warm water.
“We don’t have a bath in our house. I thought this would help me relax and so we were hanging out there and I was in the hot tub and I thought, ‘OK, I don’t feel very good.’”
They went home and called Rex.
“I said, ‘Maybe we should get checked, to make sure,’” Aleah said.
So the Vandeheys and her mother went to the birth center.
“(Rex) checked to see if my cervix was softened and dilated and it was,” Aleah said.
Eight centimeters, as a matter of fact. Full dilation, which typically means a woman is ready to give birth, is 10.
They got busy, rushing to the hospital, Aleah said.
At 8:29 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, the Vandeheys were holding their daughter, Selah Cove Vandehey.
Four weeks early (35 weeks and six days), she weighed 6.6 pounds and measured 18½ inches.
“My boss will be very surprised that I won’t be going to work on Monday,” Aleah said, laughing. Prior to Selah’s arrival, Aleah had worked at Hazella Bakery since 2021.
The thought that their baby might be the first of the year didn’t really occur to them, Caleb said.
“Once we got here they told us, ‘You’ll probably be the first baby of the year. You might be in the paper and stuff because that’s a thing.’ We thought, ‘Cool.’”
They were a little preoccupied, Aleah noted.
“I was not prepared. We had nothing packed. My mom had to go to our house and bring us clothes and stuff.”
The couple said they had their family and friends try to guess the arrival date, the baby’s weight and gender.
“Nobody guessed this date,” Caleb said.
One of the benefits of having the year’s first baby was a big gift basket full of baby items, which was presented by the Girod Birth Center nursing staff.
The Vandeheys met a few years ago at the Lebanon Calvary Chapel church, where Caleb, 20, now is a staff member, handling maintenance.
“Mainly, we got to know each other through the youth group,”said Aleah, 21.
They were married in August of 2023.
Aleah is one of 12 children and Caleb has four siblings. His brother is married to one of Aleah’s sisters.
Selah tips the balance between girls and boy cousins on both sides of the family, Caleb said.
“She was the tie-breaker between girls and boys on both sides, I guess,” he said. “Now there’s six girls and five boys on (Aleah’s) side, and on my side she’s the fifth grandchild – three girls and two boys.”
Selah, who, Caleb noted, is named after a word in the book of Psalms in the Bible that means to pause to meditate, joins a big family.
Her dad said he hopes Selah will live up to her name.
“Our heart behind Selah Cove is we’re just praying that God would grow her to love God’s word and to meditate on God’s word and to hide it in her heart. Cove is just a hiding place. A resting place.”