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WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. Neither the Mingione family from Edgemont nor the Hernandez family from New Rochelle expected their new daughters to arrive on New Years Day, but as girls often do, they had ideas of their own.
Parents Lisa and Frank Mingione were planning a quiet New Years with their older daughter Liana, 3, at their home on the Eastchester/Scarsdale border, and didnt expect little Gemma Alessia to arrive until Jan. 4. But early on New Years Day Lisa began feeling contractions, and the couple headed over to Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville.
"We were told to go back home, because she was not in labor," said Frank Mingione. "Our doctor had scheduled a C-section for Wednesday."
But by noon on New Years Day, Lisa Mingione said she knew it was time to head back to the hospital.
"I was in a lot of pain, we checked with the doctor, and he said to head over," she said.
Gemma Alessia Mingione was born at 2:28 p.m., the first baby born at Lawrence Hospital in the new year. She weighed in at 6 pounds 3 ounces.
"I guess for the rest of her life she is going to think that ball dropping in Times Square is for her birthday," said Frank Mingione. "And she should."
Hours earlier, Sound Shore Medical Centers first baby of the new year, Grace Hernandez, arrived at 4:16 a.m. She weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces.
It was an especially happy, if surprising, new year for her parents, Martha and Raul Hernandez of New Rochelle. Her mother Martha had expected to deliver Grace via C-section on Jan. 10, but experienced pains on Saturday night and was rushed to the hospital.
"It's shocking, it's the Lord's way," Martha said. Husband Raul added, "It's a new baby and a new year.
Grace is the couples third child, after two sons, Abiel, 10, and Samuel, 8, who were at their mothers bedside along with their father on New Years Day.
Martha said she was grateful to give birth to her third baby and first daughter. "I'm so happy to have a girl," she said. "And it's a miracle because I wasn't supposed to have another baby because I have a hip problem. It took eight years and I'm so happy today."
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