NEW NAZARETH BABY

By Bill Wichert
January 01, 2010, 2:15PM
Emily Marie Voloshen has become the region's first fresh face of the new decade.

About an hour after midnight, Emily Marie became the first new baby of 2010 at hospitals in the Lehigh Valley and Warren County. She was born at 1:02 a.m. at St. Luke's Hospital to Nancy and Timothy Voloshen of Nazareth Borough.

Four and a half hours later, Skyler Morgan Dion was born at 5:36 a.m. at Lehigh Valley Hospital, to parents Kristen and Kevin.

Warren County's first baby, Emily Joy Mineo, could be heard crying at 8:28 a.m. in a delivery room at Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, recalled her mother, Shelley Mineo, of Lower Mount Bethel Township.

"It was just like, 'Wow, this is it!" Shelley Mineo by phone today, while holding her daughter in her arms. "I thought she was just the most beautiful thing."

Shelley Mineo went to the hospital at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, because her 7-year-old son, Jordan, was suffering from stomach pains. They left the hospital at 9:30 p.m. and returned home by 12:15 a.m. this morning.

Forty-five minutes later, she was feeling contractions.

"Little did I know, I was going to deliver the next day," said Shelley Mineo, whose delivery date was originally slated to be between Jan. 7 and 12. "I couldn't believe the timing."

Easton Hospital reported no births as of earlier this afternoon.