Eleanor Amelia Guderyan is the New Year’s Baby for 2023.
Eleanor Amelia was the first baby born in the Okanagan, when she entered the world Sunday at 1:40 a.m. at Penticton Regional Hospital.
She is the proud daughter of Steve and Lisa Guderyan of Peachland and little sister of Janet, 7 and Hailey, 4.
She weighed six pounds, 14 ounces at birth.
“The nurses were phenomenal, especially with everything going on with shortages of staffing,” Lisa said.
“They were hoping the baby wouldn’t arrive until after one o’clock when staffing was able to get in and she quite obediently arrived at 1:40. The nurses were super supportive. This is my third baby, but they didn’t make any assumptions and asked me about each thing, making sure I was comfortable.”
Among the visitors on Jan. 1 were Eleanor’s two older sisters.
“They both think she’s very cute and they’re really grateful that she wasn’t a boy because they didn’t like the name we picked out for a boy,” Lisa said.
Eleanor Amelia arrived at a sad time in Lisa’s life.
“December was kind of awful. My sister died from lung cancer and was an advocate for the last two years. Her fight ended on Dec. 9. Now, not quite a month later, this little girl came along. Being in labour and not having my sister around — she’d be so proud of this little one — was bittersweet.”
Having the New Year’s baby is exciting, Lisa said, noting she was presented with a blanket as a gift along with the traditional front-page newspaper photo.
Lisa was recently elected to the Central Okanagan School Board as Peachland’s representative.
“Wednesday will be her first school board meeting,” she said of the baby.
Source: kelownadailycourier.ca
