As the world rang in a new year, the D.C. area also welcomed the first babies of 2021.
Adventist HealthCare said a baby boy weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces was born to parents Michele Vicino-Coleman and her husband, Ricardo Coleman, at 12:30 a.m.
“I was like, ‘Wow this is, this is actually pretty, pretty neat,'” Vicino-Coleman said.
Vicino-Coleman is an English teacher at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring. She said she was excited to share some positive news amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This experience has been such a little bright spot, a little joy,” Vicino-Coleman said.
She recently moved to Annapolis but didn’t want to switch doctors at the last minute, so when she started having contractions, she and her husband traveled to her aunt’s house, eight minutes from the hospital. Her aunt was a former Montgomery County Public School teacher.
Vicino-Coleman said her baby came two weeks early, and both baby and mom are healthy. “The feeling right now is a sense of relief and joy,” she said.
Earlier at 12:13 a.m., baby Liam Josiah came into the world weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg. He is the first child of Nickie and Josiah.
Josiah thought Liam would come Thursday night, since they arrived at the hospital earlier that day.
“We never considered the idea of us having a New Year’s baby,” he said.
Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring welcomed a baby boy as its first birth of the year, arriving at 12:21 a.m. Mom Dr. Tiffany Garrett and husband Kikeh Wah watched the ball drop in the labor and delivery room, the hospital said.
Baby Kion, whose name means “leader” in Swahili, was born prematurely, and the hospital said he is in NICU “doing well and ready to feed and grow.”
“Kion is already paving the way — we chose the name Kion as a tribute to him leading us into the new year,” Garrett said, in part, in a statement from the hospital. “We are praying for a bright and prosperous future for him.”
Later, White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring delivered a baby boy weighing 7 pounds and 3 ounces to a Hyattsville, Maryland, family at 2:11 a.m.
At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the first birth was a baby boy who arrived at 3:51 a.m.
Adventist HealthCare said the mothers and babies in their care are all healthy and received special gift baskets filled with bibs, books, a blanket and other baby-related essentials.
“The first baby of the new year is always so exciting at our birth center,” said Nan Troiano, Shady Grove Medical Center’s director of women’s and infants’ services.
Adventist HealthCare said Shady Grove Medical Center delivers approximately 5,000 babies each year and offers a Level III neonatal intensive care unit for babies who need specialized care when they arrive.
“This special occasion is a blessing and marks the many new beginnings to come this year,” said Patricia Hudson, manager of the birth center at White Oak Medical Center.
Lastly at Stafford hospital, baby Rylee Sakayo was born at 8:05 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces.
“This is the perfect way to start a new year,” Rylee’s mother Christina said.
