After a week’s worth of patiently waiting, a Kamloops couple has their good luck charm.
Crystelle Jose Areuano, 23, and Paul Ibizugbe, 29, are overjoyed upon the arrival of their first child, a baby girl, who was born at 4:54 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 1 at Royal Inland Hospital, making her the second 2026 baby born in the entire Interior Health region.
Baby Eliana weighs in at six pounds and just under two ounces.
Areuano said Thursday afternoon that the name means “God has answered,” adding Eliana comes as a blessing following a tough year.
She’ll serve as a “good luck charm” for a lifetime ahead.
It’s the couple’s first child, and they have “so much love in their hearts,” said Areuano.
She said Eliana’s due date was Dec. 24, “so we thought we were having a Christmas baby, but she decided she wanted New Year’s instead, so that’s also exciting.”
Areuano said the care she’s received in the Kamloops hospital has been “amazing, everyone here has been super helpful and it’s just been so great. Everything went so smoothly.”
Areuano is from the Sunshine Coast and Ibizugbe is from Nigeria, but the couple now lives in Kamloops. Areuano said it had been a busy year with work and school for the two of them, but Eliana is their “little blessing, and we’re just so happy.”
The first baby of 2026 born in Interior Health was also the first baby born in B.C. The baby was born at Kelowna General Hosptial at 12:18 a.m.