While 8 billion people ushered in the New Year across the globe, more than a dozen new bundles of joy arrived in the Bay Area just in time for a celebration of their own.
Locally, the first baby appears to be a baby boy born at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in San Jose — only five minutes after midnight on Jan. 1.
Baby Albert entered the world weighing 6 pounds and 11 ounces. While his parents did not want to share their names for the occasion, they wished “all the best for the baby and congrats to him for such a special birthday!”
The next three newborns of 2024 — who arrived at 12:21 a.m. in San Francisco, 12:49 a.m. in San Leandro and 12:56 a.m. in Walnut Creek, respectively — were each born at Kaiser Permanente hospitals.
One of those babies interrupted New Year’s Eve dinner plans.
Right as Roxana Vazquez and Jesus Garcia were off to enjoy a night of fine dining at Paradiso in San Leandro, her water broke before their car could leave their driveway. Baby Jimenna arrived less than five hours after the canceled reservation, weighing 7 pounds and 5 ounces.
Fortunately, she was only a little early, since Roxana had an appointment to be induced at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“I was trying to be calm,” Roxana said. “Jesus, on the other hand, was the one that was more nervous — almost wanting to cry inside the house while trying to get everything ready.”
Despite the hectic change of plans, the fact that Jimenna is now a New Year’s baby didn’t change anything for her parents or her older “fur” brother, a Labradoodle named Deebo.
“The most important thing for us — whether she came today or a week from today — was that she was here healthy,” Rozxanna said. “We were looking forward to her arrival, but we just got lucky that she got here sooner than her actual date.”
Further south in Mountain View, Varnika Narayana Bhatla became the first baby born at El Camino Health Hospital at 1:50 a.m. Monday. She weighed 6 pounds and 1.4 ounces.
After more than 12 hours of labor and delivery, she also became the first child for parents, Haarika and Raj.
Exhaustion was only one of a wide range of emotions running through the new mother’s mind when she held her for the first time.
“It’s kind of a different feeling for me,” Haarika said. “Obviously, I’ll have to protect my daughter from whatever that’s been going on around us, but at the same time, play with her and make sure that I instill all the right values that I want to bring out in her. Sometimes I have doubts in my mind that I will be a good mom to her, but I will always be there to support her and everything.”
One thing is for certain: Varnika has given her family a new reason to celebrate the first day of each year.
“Normally, New Year’s is just like starting another year for me — I don’t have that thinking that a new year means a fresh start,” Haarika said. “But now since we have our daughter, the New Year means it’s her birthday, so we are going to celebrate that from now on.”