Elmhurst Memorial Hospital's First Baby of the New Year Comes Racing In At Full Speed

What do you get when you cross a classic Chicago-style blizzard with a newborn baby that really isn't messing around? A bit of a pressure cooker for mom and dad.

Meet Baby Estephan. She doesn't have a first name yet, but she already has a claim to fame. She is the first baby born at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in 2014. 

She gave her parents a run for their money on New Year's Eve, when mom Jennifer's labor progressed so rapidly they had little time to spare before arriving at the hospital.

"It went pretty quickly," Jennifer said Thursday. 

Jennifer and her husband, Tony, arrived at the hospital at 11:45 Tuesday night, and Baby Estephan was born a little more than an hour later, at 12:57 a.m. Wednesday.

They left their home in Roselle on New Year's Eve during the first phase of a blizzard that ended up piling more than a foot of snow on Elmhurst by Thursday. 

"Getting to the hospital was pretty bad," Jennifer said. "We left around 11 and it took us 40 minutes. Part of the highway was closed; it looked like there was an accident."

She had no idea her labor would progress so quickly.

"When we left the house, it wasn't that bad. But by the time I got to the hospital, I was in a lot of pain," she said. "I didn't have an opportunity for an epidural, so that was not good. But at least it went quick."

Baby Estephan came into the world three days ahead of her due date, weighing 6 pounds, 2 ounces, and she is 20 1/2 inches long. The new addition is their third child; they also have a 14-year-old son, Kyle, and a daughter, Caroline, who will be 3 this month.

"They both saw her yesterday. They're excited," Jennifer said of their other two children.

Tony and Jennifer both graduated from York High School in Elmhurst in 1997. Jennifer grew up here and attended Elmhurst schools from kindergarten through high school. They still have family here, as well as in Roselle, to help them get into a groove with the new baby. 

They decided to stay an extra day at Elmhurst Memorial, since blizzard conditions continued well into Thursday.

"We could have gone home today, but they said we could stay until tomorrow," she said.

First order of business when they get home is to "get everything in order," Jennifer said.

"I thought I would have had at least a couple of hours of labor to prepare, wash her clothes and everything," she said. "None of that's really done yet."

As for a name?

"Caroline already has her named Ashley," Jennifer said. "She's picked that name and she's sticking with it. If we get to the point where we have no idea, we may just go with that."