First Babies Born in 2026: Northeast Wisconsin Rings in the New Year with New Life
Aurora and Mateo arrived within 23 minutes of midnight, kicking off 2026 with tears of joy in Northeast Wisconsin delivery rooms.
Midnight Cheers Turn to Lullabies as Northeast Wisconsin Celebrates 2026’s First Newborns
GREEN BAY, Wis. — While most of Wisconsin was counting down the final seconds of 2025, two labor-and-delivery teams 30 miles apart were counting heartbeats. At exactly 12:00:47 a.m., a 7-pound 2-ounce girl named Aurora Hope Zielinski blinked into the fluorescent calm of Aurora BayCare Medical Center, becoming the region’s first baby of 2026. She arrived so quickly that her father, Mitch, barely had time to drop the confetti he’d smuggled in his coat pocket.
‘She Beat the Ball Drop’
Dr. Lila Lamos, the attending obstetrician, still laughs at the memory. “Mom joked she wanted a New Year’s baby, but we didn’t think she’d cut it that close,” Lamos said. “When the delivery-room clock hit 12:00:30, the nurses started chanting ‘Push! Push!’ like it was Times Square.” Aurora’s mother, Dana Zielinski, 29, a fourth-grade teacher from Suamico, summed up the moment between exhausted breaths: “She beat the ball drop—by half a second.”
Twenty-Three Minutes Later, a Brother-Sister Race
Before Aurora’s first cry finished echoing down the hallway, Bellin Health in Green Bay was prepping for its own headline. At 12:23 a.m., Mateo Luis Martinez made his entrance—8 pounds even, eyes wide open, fists ready. “He looked like he wanted to punch 2026 in the nose,” laughed his mother, Camila Martinez, 32, who works the early shift at a local dairy. Mateo’s father, Luis, an Army reserval specialist, captured the delivery on his phone, planning to show it at every future birthday. “He’ll never live down being 23 minutes late to the party,” he said.
A Quiet Rivalry Between Hospitals
The friendly rivalry between Aurora BayCare and Bellin is decades old. Each New Year’s Eve, nurses place informal bets on which unit will log the first birth. This year, the stakes were a traveling trophy made from an old bassinette nameplate. “We lost the trophy, but we gained a great story,” said Bellin’s nurse manager, Jenna VanStraten, who good-naturedly handed over the hardware to her BayCare colleagues Wednesday morning.
2026’s Early Stats
- Aurora Hope Zielinski: 7 lbs 2 oz, 19.5 inches, born 12:00:47 a.m.
- Mateo Luis Martinez: 8 lbs 0 oz, 20.75 inches, born 12:23 a.m.
- Total New Year’s babies in Northeast Wisconsin before sunrise: 11
- Forecasted regional baby boom for 2026: +4% over 2025
“Every birth feels like the world pressing reset. On New Year’s, it’s the universe hitting refresh twice.” — Dr. Lila Lamos, OB-GYN
From Fireworks to Lullabies
By 2 a.m., the fireworks along the Fox River had fizzled, replaced by the soft hum of incubators and the rhythmic beep of monitors. In both hospitals, security locked the gift-shop champagne in the basement. “We traded bubbly for bottles,” said night-shift nurse Maria Alvarez, who swaddled Aurora while her parents FaceTimed relatives in Texas. “Same celebration, smaller bubbles.”
Looking Ahead
Local demographers note that New Year’s births often predict regional trends. If the first arrivals are any indication, 2026 could see a modest baby bump, echoing post-pandemic rebounds elsewhere. For now, the Zielinskis and Martinezes are focused on smaller milestones: first smiles, first sleepless nights, first photos with the trophy that will someday feel antique to kids who will never know a world without it.