Woman welcomes new year with new son

The new year started off in one of the best ways possible for a Boulder City family, with the birth of a child.

At 1:02 a.m. Jan. 1, resident Elizabeth Gleich delivered her first child, Carter Gleich, at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas. He was the first baby born at the facility in 2021.

She said her delivery had some difficult moments, like when her epidural wore off and the doctor took awhile to get to the hospital. Even with those difficulties, she said the delivery was still incredible.

“It was an amazing experience,” Gleich said. “At one point I was saying, ‘I can’t do this’ and then Mother Nature takes over and says, ‘Yes you can,’ and you do.”

“It was just literally the miracle of birth, just literally the gift of God watching him be born,” said her mother, Karen Gleich, who was there for her grandson’s birth.

With 2021 underway and her son at home, Elizabeth Gleich, 26, said she is most looking forward to experiencing motherhood and feeling the love and blessing of having a child.

“I’m enjoying every moment I possibly can,” she said.

One thing she is enjoying is being back in Boulder City where she and her mom graduated from high school. She said she moved to Summerlin after graduating but decided to come back after she found out she was pregnant so she could raise her son in town with the community and people there.

“I can’t wait for him to be old enough to participate in the extracurricular activities here,” she said.

Her parents still live in town and are excited to watch their grandson grow.

“Yesterday we took him for a walk,” said Karen Gleich. “I just enjoy watching him see things for the first time and move his head. It’s amazing how much he’s grown already. … He has a ravenous appetite.”

As the first baby born in 2021 at Southern Hills Hospital, Elizabeth and Carter Gleich were moved to a special suite and given some goodies from the facility. She said there were twins born earlier by cesarean section at a hospital in the same system as Southern Hills, but Carter was the first born naturally there.

Contact reporter Celia Shortt Goodyear at cgoodyear@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow her on Twitter @csgoodyear.