Iris Redondo Lacey entered this world at 2:26 a.m. on New Year's Day at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

If firsts and rare signs are a measure of good luck, the little tike will have a lot of it.

She was the first baby born at the hospital in 2010, and as her mother struggled to bring her into the world, a blue moon — a rare second full moon in a month — crossed the sky. Santa Feans won't see another New Year's Eve blue moon until 2028, when Iris should be ready to graduate from high school.

Her mother, Maria "Maite" Teresa Redondo Cladera, is accustomed to bringing babies into the world at the hospital, though until Iris, they always belonged to other people. Redondo Cladera, a midwife and family nurse practitioner with La Familia Medical Center, has overseen 17 births at Christus St. Vincent for her patients. She said she was the first midwife to work at the hospital. Her La Familia colleague, midwife Patricia Rosen, oversaw Iris's birth.

Redondo Cladera had hoped Iris would be born at home as was her other daughter, Luna Redondo Campiglio, now 13. But her water broke before contractions began, setting off a 24-hour deadline for the baby to arrive. Injections of pitocin, a synthetic hormone, helped jump-start the contractions.

"The induction was tough," Redondo Cladera said as she cuddled little Iris on the family's couch at their Santa Fe home, both quickly back from the hospital.

Iris's dad, Michael Lacey, watched the whole process closely. The pharmacy director at Christus St. Vincent, he knows how drugs can impact human bodies, for better and worse. But everything turned out fine.

Luna was her mom's cheerleader during the birth. "We're saying she gets the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award for encouragement," Lacy said.

"She was saying you can do this, Mom," Redondo Cladera said. "She tried to help me relax. She was giving me an image of a beach."

Little Iris weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long when she arrived.

Lacey's other two children, Rachel Lacey, 20, and Grant Lacey, 17, were on their way to see their new sister.

Luna wants to hold her sister often. But she doesn't want to change her little sister's dirty diaper, her mother said with a smile. Like her big sister, Iris will be raised bilingual: Redondo Cladera is from Majorca, Spain.

Snuggled in a pink cap and outfit with blue booties, Iris let out a healthy cry to let her mother know she was hungry and thought it was time for the interview to end. "No llores, no llores," her mother crooned back.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.