It only took seven minutes into the new year for the first baby to be born in metro Denver, maybe the whole state, according to a news release from UCHealth.

Named Jimena Giselle Jimenez Alvarez, the newborn was delivered by staff at UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital at 12:07 a.m. Sunday.

Alvarez arrived more than a month early, according to the release. The newborn’s arrival came as a surprise to parents Jessica Alvarez and Eduardo Jimenez of Aurora.

“We never thought she would be born in January, let alone right at the beginning of 2023,” Alvarez said in the release. “It was a big surprise.”

Big surprises can come in small packages: Newborn Alvarez weighed in at 4 pounds, 4 ounces. This is Alvarez’s and Jimenez’s first child, according to the release.

UCHealth delivers more 3,500 newborn babies every year. That’s about 10 per day.

Jimena Giselle Jimenez Alvarez will always be the first of 2023.

The first baby of 2023 born at Denver Health arrived less than an hour later — and he came with 2,023 diapers. Born at 12:56 a.m. to parents Krimson Avila and Joseph Baez, Joevonni Rae Baez weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces. 

The parents received the diapers as part of the Denver Health Foundation’s Newborns in Need program. The program gives each family with a baby born at Denver Health a bag of essentials such as diapers, wipes, clothes, a stuffed animal and book.