‘A great way to start the year.’ South Florida hospitals celebrate first babies of 2021
Putting a rough year in the rear-view mirror, South Florida hospitals welcomed the first babies born in the new year.
Salomé Ayala Duarte’s parents spent New Year’s Eve counting down — but not to midnight.
They were counting seconds, timing contractions to gauge the arrival of their second child.
Then 2021 arrived, and then so did Salomé.
She debuted about 10 to 15 seconds past midnight Friday as the nurses celebrated the new year in the hallway of Baptist Hospital in Kendall.
Salomé was the first child born in 2021 in South Florida — and perhaps the first child born in the Eastern Time Zone. South Florida hospitals on Friday celebrated the newborns of the new year, saying goodbye to a disastrous year by saying hello to a new one, and new lives.
“We’re getting a lot of attention,” said Salomé’s mother, Edith Yulliana Duarte, 35. “They’re saying we’re the celebrities of Baptist.”
“It’s a great way to start the year,” the mother said. “A baby is always a blessing. It was a good way to end 2020 or a great way to start 2021. Either way works for us. It gives a lot of meaning to this new year.”
Salomé wasn’t due until Jan. 9, but Duarte and her husband, Gabriel Ayala, knew better after their son was born early three years ago. They made no plans for New Year’s Eve and found themselves at the hospital at 9 p.m. Thursday.
Coming from the MiMo area, they arrived too late for the mother, dilated at 9 centimeters, to get an epidural. She passed on it when her son, Frederico, was born but wanted an easier delivery this time.
She still got her wish: Salomé’s birth was fast, and the baby girl was born healthy at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches.
“She’s so strong, came
out so vivid and wanting to eat,” said the 43-year-old father, “grabbing and latching from the very beginning.”
“If she doesn’t prove the future is female, I don’t know what [does],” he said. “She’s a little bit of a light that’s coming to us. She’s a great hope for everybody.”
Salomé’s time in the womb was different from the first time Duarte was pregnant. Pregnancy during the quarantine felt longer. But the upside to isolating at home meant more time together as a family, doing their best to stay healthy. They had a small baby shower in a park and a virtual baby shower thrown by coworkers.
“We had no plans to spend New Year’s Eve in the hospital,” Ayala said. “It has been a tremendous blessing overall.”
JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL — D-ZANI YVETTE BURDEN
D-Zani Yvette Burden is a holiday baby after all.
She was due to arrive
Dec. 26. Her family went on with their tradition of spending Christmas in their pajamas but hoped mother Shirdykyia Myrick would go into labor.
“D-Zani was being stubborn, she wasn’t coming,” said grandmother Tashika Robinson, 45. “She had plans for New Year’s.”
Myrick, 20, arranged for her first child’s birth to be induced at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Thursday, with hopes that D-Zani would be born in the new year.
Hospital staff let the family know they were in a race with another family to have the first baby of the new year at Jackson Memorial. Robinson had her family, including D-Zani’s father and Myrick’s fiancé, Dee Burden, on FaceTime to count down to 2021 together.
D-Zani arrived at 1:10 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces, almost like Myrick. The hospital gifted them with teddy bears, blankets, diapers and took pictures of the new family.
“It was amazing,” said Robinson, a new grandmother. “I actually cut the umbilical cord. It was a beautiful experience. I wouldn’t trade this day for nothing in the world. This is one of the best days of my life.”
Robinson has always been close with Myrick, her only daughter out of four kids. They work together at The
Swagger Boutique, their family owned women’s clothing store near Liberty City.
Her daughter’s pregnancy reminded Robinson of her own pregnancy with Myrick, even almost down to their weights at birth. Myrick weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces when she was born.
Just like Robinson, Myrick craved her favorite foods — like her mother’s chicken soup — but could no longer stomach them. The pain, the cravings, the way her body morphed and how she walked was the same.
Robinson guided her daughter through the pregnancy. The coronavirus pandemic limited Myrick to one hospital visitor, so it
was Robinson who helped her daughter as she went into labor.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s going to be a New Year’s baby,’ ” the grandmother said. “She’s going to be the holiday baby we were all hoping and praying for.”
Robinson and Myrick have been saving up their money, filling up reusable water bottles with coins and bills to pay for bassinets and swings — one at Robinson’s house, the other at Myrick’s apartment.
Robinson plans on counting their savings when they’re able to go home.
“With my granddaughter, it brings us happiness,” she said. “Everyone is happy, everyone is excited, we have this new bundle of joy.
We could not ask for anything more.”
BROWARD HEALTH CORAL SPRINGS — CALEB JOSEPH REIGH
Caleb Joseph Reigh might be South Florida’s second-oldest baby of the new year.
He was born at 12:04 a.m. at Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health Coral Springs. Caleb, born at 4 pounds and 17.7 inches, is receiving care in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
NORTH SHORE MEDICAL CENTER
North Shore Medical Center near Miami Shores welcomed its first child of the new year at 2:22 a.m. Elia Funez gave birth to a baby weighing 6 pounds and 13 ounces.
BROWARD HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER— LIAM MUÑOZ
Parents Estrella Orellana and Elvis Muñoz welcomed their son, Liam Muñoz, at 7:20 a.m. Friday. Liam was the first baby of 2021 born at Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward
Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Liam weighed 7 pounds and measured 19.5 inches.