First baby of year beats due date by a week
Retty Varghese was in no hurry to have her baby, but her baby apparently had other plans.
So four or five seconds after midnight on New Year's Day, little Jeslin Varghese decided she was ready to enter the world via Evanston Hospital. She arrived with a title to boot: the first baby born in the Chicago area in 2006.
Jeslin beat her due date by a week. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and measured just over 20 inches long.
Varghese, 36, is a nurse in the hospital's comprehensive cardiac care unit. She had been having mild contractions for the last three days and arrived at the hospital with her husband, Matthew, around 8:30 p.m. Saturday. But the Morton Grove mom still didn't think she'd be giving birth as the clock struck.
"When we came, I was hoping we'd stay for another day, because the contractions were really far apart," Varghese said. But once she got an epidural, "it didn't take long."
Jeslin joins brother Jobin, 8, and sister Jasmine, 4, who gazed at their new sibling as TV cameras rolled and photographers clicked away.
Coming on Jeslin's heels -- or at the same time, depending on who was watching the clock -- was a baby boy born at midnight at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital. No further details were available.
Rounding out the top five were Kennedy Nicole Lewis-Muhammad, born at 12:06 a.m. at the University of Chicago Hospitals; Isabela Bolanos, born at 12:17 a.m. at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, and Logan Arceo, born at 12:19 a.m. at St. Joseph Hospital.
Kennedy Nicole was premature, weighing only 3 pounds, 5 ounces. U. of C. Hospital spokeswoman Catherine Gianaro said she and her mom were "doing OK."
First twins
Eleven minutes later, Isabela made her suburban debut at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Parents Julio Bolanos and Teresa Ruis of Wheeling weren't expecting her for another 12 days. Bolanos said nurses reminded them more than a few times that if the baby was born before midnight, they qualified for a tax break next year.
"But me and my wife said we weren't too concerned about that. As long as she was healthy, that's what matters," he said.
Bolanos, a truck driver, said given Isabela's early arrival as the fourth Chicago area baby, they now have a good story they can tell her when she is older.
But forgive dad for wanting to embellish. "I'm just gonna tell her she was first," Bolanos laughed.
The first twins of the year honor goes to Victoria and Adam Erickson of Lockport, who had joked to each other Saturday about the possibility Victoria would go into labor early -- even though she wasn't due until Feb. 2. They joked as they enjoyed the fancy meal she'd cooked of lobster tail, steak and shrimp, with their sons, Cody, 7, and Jacob, 6.
"After dinner, all of a sudden, I started having contractions. I told my husband, and he started laughing at me like, yeah, right," said Victoria, 30.
No joke for the Erickson family. Twins Hunter Logan and Courtney Elizabeth were born at 1:02 and 1:04 a.m., respectively.
