Jessup parents welcome Lackawanna County's first baby of 2023
Jan. 2—SCRANTON — As a glowing Patrick Barksdale gazed at his new son, Ace, Sunday afternoon, he admitted he sees a lot of himself in the baby boy — including stubbornness.
Barksdale, 32, and Kayla Goralski, 31, both of Jessup, welcomed their third child early Sunday morning at Moses Taylor Hospital. Goralski spent more than three hours in labor before Ace was born.
"My first reaction was I bet she's happy," Patrick Barksdale said. "I noticed a really quick sigh of relief."
He was born at a unique time — 1:11 a.m. on Jan. 1. The name Ace, at first chosen at random, took on new significance with all the ones, Patrick Barksdale said.
"That's a lucky number," Ace's grandmother, Norma Barksdale, said from the family's hospital room on Quincy Avenue.
The couple's two other boys — Lucas, 8, and Aidan, 7, were born four days apart in April in consecutive years, but Ace, who was due Dec. 30, has a month all to himself..
The couple praised the staff at Moses Taylor for their assistance with the birth of Ace who is 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches long.
"They were amazing," Goralski said, noting it was an all-natural delivery.
"They were on point with everything," Patrick Barksdale added. "We had all three of them here and who knows ... maybe another three."
The couple typically attends a small family gathering on New Year's Eve in hopes of starting the next year on a positive note, but the beginning of 2023 was even more special for the family.
"This year was a little luckier than others," said Patrick Barksdale, who is starting off the new year with a simple approach to life.
"One day at a time ... that's all you can do," he said. "Hopefully the year doesn't fly by."
About eight hours later, a girl — Karter Mae Lubinski — was born at Geisinger Community Medical Center — the first new baby of the year at the hospital on Mulberry Street in Scranton.
Jada Tokar and Zander Lubinski, both of Duryea, welcomed their first child at 9:07 a.m.
Karter Mae weights 7 pounds, 8 ounces and is 19 3/4 inches long.
Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale did not expect to deliver a New Year's Day baby, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
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