{"id":144901,"date":"2026-01-05T18:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=144901"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:58:20","slug":"semc-welcomes-first-baby-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/semc-welcomes-first-baby-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"SEMC Welcomes First Baby of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Mikayla Bruggeman<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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Some moments feel perfectly timed. When Kelly Kilpatrick Wendt and Heath Wendt welcomed their baby at Sleepy Eye Medical Center, the stars aligned in an unexpected way. The couple, who chose to wait until birth to learn their baby\u2019s sex, heard\u00a0\u201cAmerican Girl\u201d<\/em>\u00a0by Tom Petty as their daughter, Adaline Wendt, was delivered by C-section\u2014courtesy of a playlist curated by SEMC operating room nurse Andy Christensen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Adaline Wendt is the first baby to be born at SEMC in 2026.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHe came over and told us right away that she was a girl,\u201d Kelly recalled. \u201cIt was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adaline was born on January 2, 2026, at 9:11 p.m., weighing 7 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Karlyn Armbruster and is Sleepy Eye Medical Center\u2019s first baby of the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited and happy,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cIt was so cool to find out she was the New Year\u2019s baby,\u201d she added, noting that Heath shared in the excitement of the moment.<\/p>\n

While the delivery was longer and more challenging than expected, meeting their daughter made it all worthwhile.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard and long delivery, and things didn\u2019t go quite as planned,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cBut it\u2019s so rewarding to have a beautiful little girl after it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly shared that she never thought she would have children. However, after watching her sister experience motherhood, her perspective changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to know that kind of maternal love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges of delivery, Kelly and Heath expressed deep appreciation for the care and support they received from the SEMC team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was amazing,\u201d said Heath.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo friendly, kind, and supportive,\u201d Kelly added. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met such amazing people. Everyone has been so open and comforting to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly and Heath look forward to spending time with their daughter at home in Sanborn, Minnesota, as they begin this new chapter and share Adaline\u2019s arrival with their friends and family.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the New Year\u2019s Baby, SEMC staff presented Adaline with a gift basket filled with baby outfits, toys, books, and other essentials. Kelly also received a self-care basket to support her recovery and transition into motherhood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mikayla Bruggeman Some moments feel perfectly timed. When Kelly Kilpatrick Wendt and Heath Wendt welcomed their baby at Sleepy Eye Medical Center, the stars aligned in an unexpected way. The couple, who chose to wait until birth to learn their baby\u2019s sex, heard\u00a0\u201cAmerican Girl\u201d\u00a0by Tom Petty as their daughter, Adaline Wendt, was delivered by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2031-02-05 18:56:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144903,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144901\/revisions\/144903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}