Chicago area hospitals welcome first babies of 2026
New Year's celebrations aren't always filled with champagne corks popping and crowds counting down. For some families, their new year brought heartbeat monitors and a baby's first cry.
Born 5 pounds, 9 ounces, with enviable eyelashes, newborn Hazel came into this world on her own timeline at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Hinsdale.
"We spent a lot of time talking about if she came on Christmas, but not about New Year's Day," said her mother, Emily Sample.
Sample might not have been watching the clock strike midnight, but when it did, it meant she would be mom to the hospital's first baby of the new year – a moment that left her speechless.
"It was so wonderful. I think there aren't words," she said.
It's likely a feeling shared by other parents in their same position.
Several hospitals in Illinois and Indiana are celebrating proud parents of 2026's first babies.
At UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook, 6-pound baby boy Matthew.
At Franciscan Health Crown Point, River Joseph was the hospital's first baby of the year, born to proud parents Ivy Green and Jacob Joseph.
At Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, proud parents Olivia and Ryan welcomed their daughter Winona.
In Elgin, Kolbie Noelle came into the world to meet her parents and two older brothers at Advocate Sherman Hospital.
At Mt. Sinai Hospital in the North Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago, parents Shaniqua Jones & Brandon Antwon Whittington welcomed 7 pound Brandon Alexander Whittington.
At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Juliana Marie Poore came on her due date.
"We're really looking forward to the fact that there's going to be a holiday on her birthday for the rest of her life," said her father, Preston Poore.
How are they going to celebrate as a family?
"We've seen some cool ideas, like undoing the Christmas tree and putting up birthday decorations, or decorating the house for Noon Year's Eve, and then doing midnight her birthday. So, we'll have to talk about what makes sense for her birthday," said her mother, Cayla Calfee Poore.
It's the start of a new year and a new life, surrounded in love.
"I hope everyone had a wonderful new year, and just I hope that everyone knows their New Year's is not as great as mine," Sample said.
