Bay Area welcomes first babies of 2022
One born 18 seconds after midnight in San Jose, another at 12:01 a.m. in Antioch
As the Bay Area celebrated the beginning of a new year, families across the region welcomed new bundles of joy.
The first baby born in the South Bay — and the Bay Area overall — arrived 18 seconds after midnight at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, according to a telephone survey of hospitals in the region. The parents were not immediately available for an interview.
The East Bay welcomed its first baby — a 7-pound, 13-ounce girl — at 12:01 a.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center, said hospital spokesperson Antonia Ehlers.
The girl’s parents — Lance and Tina Simms— named her Madelyn Mei. She is the Livermore couple’s first child.
“They’re doing great,” said Lance, 40, about his wife and baby in a telephone interview. “Madelyn is looking happy and not crying. Tina has a smile on her face.”
Lance said he and Tina hope to instill a love for the outdoors in Madelyn. The couple, after all, first met while building trails with Volunteers for Outdoor California.
“We’re hoping to take Madelyn on plenty of hikes and get her into the outdoors as well,” Lance said.
Madelyn’s parents, however, were willing to concede she might choose a different line of work than them. Both are engineers — Lance works for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Tina works for Sandia National Laboratories.
“We’re both engineers with a big passion for nerdy stuff,” Lance said. “Tina works on nuclear stockpile-type things and
Michele and Zach Lovering, both
36 of Los Gatos, welcomed their baby, Kit Robin, to the world on Jan. 1. The girl was born 39 minutes after midnight at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, making her one of the first babies of the new year.
I work on satellites. I’m guessing our baby will turn out to be an artist.”
The Bay Area welcomed nearly half a dozen other babies within the first hour of 2022. They included a boy at 12:04 a.m. at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and a girl at 12:20 a.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center. Babies were also delivered at 12:31 a.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center and at 12:32 a.m. at the Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center.
Rounding out the list was Kit Robin, who was born at 12:39 a.m. at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose. She is the second child of Zach and Michele Lovering of Los Gatos.
“It’s awesome,” said Zach, 36. “She definitely was a lot easier on the delivery end. She took about half the time to come out, which is great. My wife is definitely happy about that.”
Zach said some family members were rooting for a 2021 birth for tax purposes — the Loverings could have claimed Kit as a dependent for the entirety of 2021. Others were excited for a New Year’s Day baby and the unique birth date of 1-1-22.
“In the end it was up to Kit to pick the date,” Zach said. “She was right on the edge there and it could have gone either way.”
At El Camino Hospital, Illakiya Loganathan, 24, and Loganathan Ganesan, 33, of Santa Clara, were thrilled to learn their baby was among the first to be born in the region in 2022. The couple had not yet settled on a name for the boy as of the morning of Jan. 1.
“I’m so happy,” said Illakiya Loganathan.
“We were pretty sure he was going to be born in the new year,” added Loganthan Ganesan. “We are pretty excited about it.”