1st Chicago Baby Of 2025 Welcomed At Advocate Illinois Masonic

CHICAGO — Advocate Illinois Masonic may have won the 2025 baby derby when baby Scarlett Carmela Sartori made her debut twelve minutes after midnight.

She is the first child of Sophia and Joshua Sartori, who said their daughter was born to the song “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows.

The couple, who reside in the Irving Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side, originally went to the hospital on Dec. 30 – Josh’s birthday – to be induced. They quickly realized that their baby wasn’t going to arrive on dad’s birthday. Once New Year’s Eve rolled around, they were all staring at the clock to see if they would have a 2024 tax deduction or a New Year baby.

“As we were going through the trenches at 11:45 p.m. we kept looking at the clock,” Sophia Sartori said. “We all had bets going on with our delivery team when she was going to be born.”

The birth team had set an alarm for midnight in the delivery room. When the alarm went off, hospital staff became excited for the Chicago couple. Joshua compared the experience watching his wife giving birth to power lifting.

“When you’re powerlifting, you get a group of guys, and they’re screaming for you,” he said. “It was the same thing ... I was the only male in the room. It was a group of women just yelling and screaming and coaching around it. It was really cool to see.”

Scarlett didn’t disappoint, entering the world at 12:12 a.m., to the song “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows.

“We had music blasting the entire time,” Sophia said. “Nineties alternative is always what I go to. So we had Red Hot Chili Peppers radio and Counting Crows just happened to be part of the mix. So we all said, ‘Okay, this is going to be her special song because that was playing all along.”

As for her same, Sophia, a former English teacher, named her daughter after one of her favorite novels, “The Scarlet Letter.” Baby Scarlett’s middle name – Carmella – is after Sophia’s mother.

“We’re just happy she’s here,” Sophia said. “It’s awesome to be able to say she’s the first of first Chicago babies.”

The delivery team set an alarm for midnight in the birth room when they realized they might have the first Chicago baby to be born in 2025. | Advocate Health Care