Net Babies Newborns Debuting On The Internet Get Warm Reception From Relatives And Family Friends

Rural North Dakota never felt more remote than the day Tim Viall’s new grandbaby belted out her first cry 800 miles away.

Viall wouldn’t get to meet little Julia Frankie or cradle her 7 pounds, 5 ounces until he could manage a trip to Spokane.

Then he discovered Deaconess Medical Center’s new “Oh, Baby!” Web site. In seconds Viall was cooing into his granddaughter’s tiny pink face.

“Golly!” said Viall, joining the growing numbers of people getting their first glimpses of new family members online. “She’s got a lot of hair!”

It’s becoming routine for thousands of newborns nationwide: First breath. First footprint. First Internet photo.

Deaconess and Valley Hospital and Medical Center launched newborn Web sites this summer, following Kootenai Medical Center’s Internet Nursery debut in May. Sacred Heart Medical Center plans to start putting babies’ first photos online this week.

Viall, the proud granddad, couldn’t immediately check the color of Julia’s eyes because they were squeezed shut. And he had to wonder whether the camera-wielding nurse had caught the baby’s best angle.

But hey, cut the nurses some slack. They didn’t go to school for this. Digital photography is an art they’re learning one baby at a time.

“I don’t like the nostrils,” nurse Catherine Eickmeyer had said just six hours earlier, rejecting her first shot of baby Julia. They were a tad prominent.

Take two: No flash. And Julia’s dad, Michael Zagajeski, thought she looked like a budding rapper with that tiny hat poking off her head and one arm cocked to the side. The third picture — no hat, closed eyes — made it to the Web site at www.deaconess-spokane.org.

“That doesn’t look too bad, does it?” mused Elizabeth Zagajeski, the tired 23-year-old mom.

The more Michael considered it, the better it looked. “We won’t have to send out too many announcements,” he said. “And it’s free. I’ll make a few phone calls and then everybody’ll be looking.”

The site, which can be searched by a baby’s name or birthdate, also lists the infant’s weight, length and hometown. Last names are omitted for security reasons. Most parents of the 200 babies born at Deaconess each month opt for the free Internet posting, says hospital spokeswoman Julie Kaplicky.

Nurses try to put photos online within 24 hours. When they goof, they sometimes hear about it from impatient, faraway relatives, said Eickmeyer, assistant manager for Deaconess’ mother-baby unit. She recalls panicking when one photo accidentally landed in the online recycle bin. “I was like, `Oh my God! What have I done with her baby?’ “

Some nurses were hesitant to add baby photography to their list of daily duties, said Eickmeyer. One said she was much better at photographing her thumb.

That’s partly why Sacred Heart decided to contract with a St. Louis-based company called First Foto, said Sherry Maughan, the hospital’s director of women’s services. A professional makes rounds with a camera every day.

Malissa Thompson is another new mom elated by Deaconess’ photo service. Her daughter, McKenzie Eleanor, arrived a few weeks early, derailing Thompson’s plans to give birth in her hometown of Coos Bay, Ore.

Thompson’s parents cried when they heard she wouldn’t make it home for the birth of their first grandchild.

But Tuesday, not quite 24 hours after McKenzie was born, relatives throughout Coos Bay gathered at computer terminals to welcome their Web wonder into the world.

“She looks like her mama, she really does,” gushed Kim Chamberlin, the baby’s great-aunt.

“By the time we see her, she’ll be almost a month old. She’s brand spanking new in this picture. You can’t get much better than that, unless they can somehow e-mail her to me.”

Not quite. But Vaill, the North Dakota grandpa, hopes for an audio upgrade by the time his next grandchild is born.

“Click,” he says, “and you could hear the primal scream.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: E-NURSERIES

Internet nurseries for area hospitals can be found at these Web sites: www.deaconess-spokane.org, www.valleyhospital.org, www.shmc.org and www.kmc.org.