The New Year is a time of new beginnings, and one New York couple celebrated an extra special beginning with the birth of their son, born at 1:39 a.m. on Jan. 1 at New York Downtown Hospital, making him Downtown’s first baby of 2013.
The seven pound, four ounce newborn, Alkhmad Rakhmanov, is the fourth child of Gulnoza and Shoazim Rakhmanov, both 28,..
The couple, who also have a 10-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 2 and 4, moved from Uzbekistan three and a half years ago, and now reside in Brooklyn.
Dr. Szilvia Nagy, the attending physician, said: “Every new baby is a symbol of hope, and a New Year’s baby even more so.”
While the littlest Rakhmanov is believed to be the first child of 2013 born south of 14th St., he is not the first baby to be born on New Year’s in New York City. The Daily News reported that title goes to Kaylee Sayuri Merino, born at the stroke of midnight at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, but NBC New York reported that it was really Olivia Rose Espinal, born seconds after midnight at NY Hospital in Queens, according to the presiding doctor.
The last time the mayor visited Downtown Hospital to meet New York City’s firstborn of the year was in 1999.
