Region’s first baby of 2009 beats the second baby by one minute
Esha Faith Langness started life with a lot of firsts.
She was the first born in Colorado Springs in 2009. She’s the first child of Micah and Eunice Langness, and she was the first New Year’s baby born at St. Francis Medical Center, which opened in August at Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road.
Delivered by Caesarean section after a day’s labor 10 days after her due date, Esha (pronounced EEsha) was named for an Indian word meaning desire.
“Our desire is that this young one at an early age sees the one who created her as her savior,” said Micah Langness.
Beating the next newest baby at St. Francis by only a minute, Esha’s timing won for her parents a basket of green, yellow and white blankets, toys and other baby goods, compliments of the St. Francis staff.
Her status as the city’s newest resident to arrive in 2009 also drew a gaggle of reporters and television cameras to the neonatal ICU unit where she was being watched by medical personnel as a precaution.
Topped with a mop of jet black hair, Esha was oblivious to the spotlight, snug in her mother’s arms.
“It was unexpected,” Eunice Langness said of her daughter’s Jan. 1 birth.
Although both parents had been up more than 24 hours, dad was chipper, grinning from ear to ear and eagerly responding to reporters’ questions.
“It was unbelievable,” he said of his daughter’s birth.
He said he isn’t troubled that Esha made her entrance amid a turbulent world with an uncertain future
“We believe that’s in the Lord’s hands,” he said. “We have to live in his will. As in Luke, the Lord said, ‘Do not worry, for I feed the ravens.’ Do you see the raven flying around saying where do I eat next?”
Esha’s arrival came just before her parents second anniversary Jan. 12.
Esha, one of 23 babies currently at the hospital, will go home with her mom on Sunday, Micah Langness said.
Memorial Health Systems’ first 2009 baby was born at 4:46 a.m., while Evans Army Community Hospital didn’t see a New Year’s infant until 7:13 a.m.-contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com