And then there were eight

To all middle children who endured the unfairness of being outshone by twinkling older and younger siblings - you think you had it bad? Wait until you hear the story of Baby H.

The eighth baby born to the Southern California couple who made history on Monday when they delivered the world's second set of live octuplets went unnoticed for the first 30 weeks of his life. The infant was literally overshadowed by his seven siblings right up until they entered the world without him - all in a four-minute flurry on Monday morning - leaving the unexpected little guy alone in his mother's open womb.

"Wait a minute, I think I feel a hand," Alejandro Vasquez said, one minute after delivering the seventh baby. Then, at 10:48 a.m., with the crowd of nearly 50 medical staffers who helped deliver the brood looking on, baby No. 8 made his entrance. In less than 48 hours, the 2 lb., 11 oz., preemie has become one of the world's most famous siblings.

It turns out that doctors, who monitored the babies' mother carefully leading up to the high-risk birth, simply could not see Baby H on the ultrasound. In fact, their team had rehearsed the delivery twice before the caesarean-section birth with an aim to avoid any last-minute surprises. They even used a suite of four operating rooms to ensure each infant, assigned its own medical team, would have ample access to medical treatment. But an additonal delivery was not something they had thought about.

"We did drills, preliminary dry runs to make sure we had everything in place for these seven babies," said Karen Maples, an obstetrician and gynecologist who acted as the team's lead surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, the hospital 30 kilometres south of Los Angeles that delivered the octuplets. "Then we found Baby H. My eyes got to be the size of saucers. It was a truly amazing delivery."

Her colleagues were equally surprised.

"We're counting [umbilical] cords, and lo and behold, there was another one," said Harold Henry, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at the hospital. "It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," he said.

While three of the babies required oxygen initially - a common occurrence with premature babies whose bodies aren't always strong enough to pump ample air into their liquid-filled lungs - and two required ventilators, all six boys and two girls are now breathing on their own. Doctors said the mother plans to breastfeed the babies, four of whom were lined up to have their first oral feeding last night.

The name of the family has not been released. And neither the mother nor the hospital staff have confirmed whether the babies were conceived with the help of in-vitro fertilization or fertility drugs. However, fertility experts say such a multiple birth is unlikely to be a natural occurrence.

Prakesh Shah, a neonatal intensivist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who helped deliver quintuplets just over a year ago, said the odds of a naturally occurring set of octuplets is practically incalculable. He said the babies will face serious health risks in the coming days and weeks as their immune systems begin to develop.

Doctors said the mother should be released from hospital in a week but that the babies will probably remain for at least two months.

With reports from Associated Press and Los Angeles Times

In order of arrival

BABY A, a boy

Weight: 2 lbs., 11 oz.,

Birth time: 10:43 a.m.

BABY B, a girl

Weight: 2 lbs., 12 oz.,

Birth time: 10:44 a.m.

BABY C, a boy

Weight: 3 lbs., 4 oz.,

Birth time: 10:45 a.m.