As many around the borough were welcoming in a, hopefully, happier, healthier and more hopeful new year, with quiet family get-togethers, perhaps tuning in to watch the low-key celebrations unfold at Times Square, where foot traffic was very much reduced to a select few frontline workers for a special New Year’s Eve show featuring The Bronx’s own, Jennifer Lopez, proud parents Gissel Vargas and Jehovell Garcia had a very different reason to celebrate the arrival of 2021.

A Happy New Year was certainly in order for the pair as their newborn son, Nathan Garcia, the first baby to be born in the Montefiore hospital system in the borough, arrived at 2:39 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2021.

 

Nathan weighs seven pounds, three ounces and is 18 inches long. He was born at the Jack D. Weiler hospital.

 

Meanwhile, the first baby of 2021 to be born in the City’s public health system, NYC Health + Hospitals, was welcomed at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island this morning at exactly 12:00 a.m. Named Jaxel Rodriguez, the little boy weighs 6 pounds, 11 ounces and measures 19 inches. Jaxel was born to proud parents, Ivett Rodriguez and Antonio Guilbert, who live in Brooklyn. The baby boy is the couple’s third child. Commenting on their new bundle of joy, the couple said they “have the best gift of the new year.”

Meanwhile, as elsewhere across the Montefiore system, and indeed across all Bronx hospitals, staff continue to work diligently throughout the holiday season in the ongoing battle against the rising surge of coronavirus cases, little Nathan represents hope, joy and promise at the start of a new year.

 

The team at Jack D. Weiler and the entire Montefiore Health System wish Nathan and his family warm congratulations!