In a bright white room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, mother and child rested together for only a moment Sunday night, shielded by a curtain and protective nurses.

When the morning started, Tracy and Matthew Candelaria still had a month of planning ahead as they prepared for the Feb. 2 birth of their first child.

By mid-afternoon, the first and only New Year’s baby in Lawrence rested quietly, wrapped tight in a white blanket. Although born a month premature, Quentin Candelaria was healthy, breathing on his own, strong enough to rest on his mother’s shoulder.

But after emergency surgery, Tracy Candelaria could barely hold him. In the bright room, she whispered a few words to her child, smiled for a moment, then struggled to keep her eyes open as nurses cleared the room so mom could sleep.

Tracy Candelaria holds her newborn son, Quintin Matthew Candelaria, in an Intensive Care Unit room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Quintin was delivered Sunday afternoon after his mother, who suffers a rare blood disorder, went to the hospital complaining of pain. He was not due until Feb. 2.

For the first baby of 2006, a new year sparkled ahead. For the first mother of the year, a rare blood disease had made the last few days of 2005 uncomfortable, to say the least.

Tracy Candelaria suffers from a unique variant of preeclampsia called the HELLP Syndrome, which can damage the liver, and, if left untreated, kill.

But Tracy’s symptoms started simply enough, Matthew said. It was discomfort, sickness. For the last week, the feeling kept Tracy awake at nights.

On New Year’s Eve, the couple left a party early – Tracy was feeling bad again.

On Sunday morning, she was still sitting up on the couch in pain. Matthew tried the old tricks: a back rub, a hot water bottle. Nothing worked.

• 6News video: First baby of 2006 arrives

“She said it was really bad,” Matthew said.

A phone call later, they were on their way to the hospital.

When they arrived around 11 a.m., doctors took blood samples and found increased liver enzymes and a shortage of injury-fighting platelets, both signs of HELLP Syndrome.

The doctor told the couple two things: First, he said that Tracy was dangerously sick. Second, he told Matthew that today he would become a father.

“It was startling,” Matthew said. “I was freaking out from that point on.”

Moments later, Tracy was on the operating table with Matthew by her side.

His mind raced, he said. He thought about the month’s worth of activities they had planned to get ready for a child.

The day before – New Year’s Eve – he and his wife shopped for a swing set for their first child. Tracy couldn’t decide what kind she liked. Matthew said she always had a hard time with decisions.

But Sunday the decision wasn’t hers. Matthew said he cried at the idea that, before her surgery, Tracy would be asleep before he could see her.

But entering the room, she was still hanging on to consciousness, her eyes fluttering. He put his hand inside hers.

It was a tough scene inside the operating room, he said. The sight of blood on white towels is startling, even for Matthew, an avid science-fiction writer.

But almost as suddenly as the decision was made, it was over. Time of birth: 2:52 p.m.

Mom was going to be OK, doctors told him. Now, Matthew is the proud father of a 5 pound, 13 ounce healthy baby boy – the first of the new year.

“It feels good,” Matthew said. “And, to an extent, it doesn’t feel real.”