CHARLESTON HOME OF 1ST BABY OF '96

Kala Renise Betts was only a few hours old when she started attracting attention.

A photographer came to take her picture. A television reporter called to see if she had arrived. A nurse brought some special gifts.

All the bustle and notoriety comes with being a hospital's first baby of the new year.

Kala arrived at Southeast Missouri Hospital at 6:31 a.m. Monday. She weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces and was 18-1/2 inches long.

Her mother, Latricia Betts of Charleston, was a patient of Dr. Scot Pringle in Cape Girardeau and chose to have her baby here. Just after midnight on New Year's Day, Betts went into labor and told her mother, Cheryl Betts, that they should leave for the hospital.

"I had been up here three times the previous week, so my mother didn't believe me," Betts said. "But then I kept jumping off the couch because the labor pains were so bad."

Cheryl Betts loaded her daughter into the car, picked up a nearby relative and left for the hospital around 1:45 a.m. Fog and drizzle made for terrible driving conditions, but things got better as the group moved north.

They arrived at the hospital at 2:30 a.m., with Latricia Betts wondering if her baby would be the year's first in Cape Girardeau. The nurses assured her that nobody else was in labor. In fact, the most recent Southeast birth had been at 1:41 p.m. Sunday.

Betts' mother stayed with her in the delivery room, coaching her through the birth.

"It's better when you have someone to comfort you and tell you everything will be all right," Betts said. "You want someone to tell you it won't be long."

Betts, who is 18, has a 2-year-old son at home. Her older child doesn't have such a notable birthday.

"It makes me feel special to have a New Year's baby," she said. Betts added that she was anxious to get back to her son and planned to leave the hospital today.

For her special birthday, Kala received an engraved mug, a teddy bear and flowers from the hospital and a handmade teddy bear and baby quilt from the River Heritage Quilters Guild.