Three seconds rules... as Baby Maeve is first 2019 bundle of joy
JUST a second... that’s all that separated the first two bundles of joy in Ireland to arrive in 2019 as baby Maeve Cox entered the world at just three seconds past midnight.
Close behind in the race to be the first baby of the New Year was Amelia O’Brien.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda delivered little Maeve, who brought instant New Year jubilation to the lives of proud mother Michelle Montague, 27, and her partner Simon Cox, 34, from Knightsbrook, Trim, Co. Meath.
It is the first time that the Co. Louth hospital’s busy maternity unit has delivered the first infant of the year.
Maeve arrived as midnight chimed out, making her both Ms Montague’s and Ireland’s firstborn of this year.
The couple are thrilled with the record their tiny daughter has already set.
‘It is a nice story to tell her in years to come. I will have all the pictures as well from the papers,’ said Ms Montague who works in Avoca in Dunboyne, Co. Meath.
Maeve, who weighed 7lb 4oz, was due on New Year’s Eve and while Michelle went into labour in the early hours of December 31, Maeve waited till three seconds past midnight to arrive.
Dad Simon, who is also father to Abbie, 14, and six-year-old Ciara, quipped that he hopes his newborn daughter will ‘keep this fame going!’.
Little Amelia, meanwhile,
‘A very positive experience’
arrived just a second later, in Dublin’s Coombe hospital.
Weighing 7lb exactly, Amelia is the third child for Clondalkin parents Leanne Farrell and Alan O’Brien, and can look forward to big brothers Alfie and Charlie watching over her in the years ahead.
The Coombe had a very busy start to the New Year, with three births in the first half hour of 2019.
Over in the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street, another of the first arrivals was a girl: Emily Philpott was born just 27 seconds after midnight to parents Natasha and Alan. Yesterday the master of the NMH, Professor Shane Higgins, was on hand to cradle the couple’s newborn after her magical achievement.
Meanwhile, Conor and Aisling McKenna, from Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, became first-time parents to the first baby born in 2019 in the midwest. And once again it was a girl as Mary McKenna, weighing just over 7lb, entered the world at 2.20am at University Maternity Hospital Limerick.
For the McKennas – both primary school teachers – it was ‘a very positive experience’.
Conor said ‘things started moving around 4pm yesterday [Monday]’ and the ten-hour labour ‘went very well’.
Praising staff, he added: ‘We had a very good consultant, Dr John Slevin, and midwives, who helped us through it. It was all a very positive experience, and we couldn’t speak highly enough of the staff... I’m feeling great – over the moon!’