Shift Change: Oak Forest Nurse Planned To Work, Welcomes Jan. 1 Baby

OAK FOREST, IL — Like many nurses, Oak Forest resident Samantha Lale was scheduled to work a New Year’s Eve shift at the hospital, which always welcomes new babies into the world to begin the New Year.

She never knew that her own baby would join those ranks, forcing her to change the plans she had to close out 2023.

Lale and her husband Matthew, welcomed their third child at 3:10 a.m. on Monday when Franklin Matthew Lale became the first baby to be born in the New Year at Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital in 2024.

Franklin was due on Jan. 4 — which meant he would have shared a birthday with his grandmother — the hospital said. Instead, he arrived three days early and weighed in at 8 pounds, 4.9 ounces. Samantha told Patch on Tuesday that given how everything happened, she forgot that she would give birth to her son on Jan. 1 and didn't realize it until later in the morning when she saw her new baby's incubator adorned with New Year's decorations.

"When you're in the hospital, you don't even think about the holidays," Samantha told Patch. "I completely forgot it was New Year's Eve, I completely forgot it was New Year's Day. So you forget it's the holidays — at least I sure did."

She added: "The date kind of goes out the window, but it's really, really cool. I never thought it would happen...it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance."

Samantha, a nurse at Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Evergreen Park, was scheduled to work a New Year's shift, but woke up and said "something didn't feel right." Not one to want to call off from work, Samantha considered working but didn't want to have to leave work if contractions began.

So she called off and said the contractions began later in the day on Sunday before Samantha said she ended up pushing longer than she expected. Doctors ordered a C-Section late in the day and Franklin was born early Monday morning.

"He made quite the appearance," Samantha Lale said on Tuesday. "I thought it was going to be New Year's Eve but it's all good. He's safe now, he's healthy ...he's good."

She added: "They say with the third kid, they usually come quicker and they usually come easier. Not with this one."

He joins his parents and two older brothers, Albert, 4, and Jacob, 2, in looking ahead to what the New Year has in store.

Samantha says she has always liked the name Franklin as a fan of the crooner Frank Sinatra and she said she, along with her husband, are fans of the band "Less Than Jake" and said Franklin fits in well with the names of the couple's other two boys.

"We both agreed on the same and we both kind of liked it, too, " Samantha said. "So it kind of flowed."