News Every Day | 02 January 2025, 02:58

Bay Area welcomes its first babies of 2025 — including one born exactly at midnight

As Bay Area residents counted down the seconds until the new year, the region’s first baby made her way into the world.

Raelynn James Greenwell, born at 12 a.m. sharp on Jan. 1, appeared to be the Bay Area’s first newborn in 2025.

Her parents, Sophia Greenwell and James Greenwell IV of Union City, welcomed their fifth daughter at Kaiser’s San Leandro Medical Center. She weighed in at 8 pounds and measured 18 1/2 inches.

“She has chubby cheeks, blue eyes and blonde hair,” Sophia Greenwell said about Raelynn James. “We’re beyond blessed. She’s perfect and looks like our youngest daughter. In fact, she reminds us of the little baby from Whoville.”

Union City parents Sophia Greenwell and James Greenwell IV pose Jan. 1 with the Kaiser San Leandro medical team that helped deliver their “first of 2025” daughter, Raelynn James, and cared for mother and baby. (Photo courtesy of the Greenwells)

Sophia Greenwell, having arrived at the hospital at 2 p.m., thought her new daughter was going to be born on New Year’s Eve. She said she was really surprised when Raelynn James made her entrance exactly at midnight — even down to the second.

“I was excited because I really wanted the basket that they had and there was a gift card in it for Target,” she said, referring to a gift the hospital gave her for giving birth to the first baby of 2025.

The basket also included baby supplies, a teddy bear and a little outfit for her baby girl.

“I just want her to be healthy that’s all,” Sophia Greenwell said of her hopes for her fifth daughter. “I just want to ring in the new year with positivity and everybody being healthy.”

First-time parents Ran Duan and Jerry Zhang, of Mountain View, welcomed their daughter, Rania Zhang, into the world at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto on Jan. 1, 2025. (Courtesy of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health)

The next two New Year’s Day babies in the Bay Area came at 12:03 a.m. and 12:04 a.m. The first child was born at John Muir Health’s Walnut Creek Medical Center; no other details were provided.

The second was a baby boy weighing 6 pounds and 15.8 ounces and measuring 20 inches who was born at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.

Parents Shivangi and Vivek of Santa Clara, whose baby boy doesn’t have a name yet, said in a statement that “midnight births are always special and exciting.”

“New Year’s Eve midnights take that excitement to another level,” the parents said. “Such births remind us of godly appearances in human forms on Earth. With these precious thoughts in mind, we welcome our baby boy with the hope that he will be a source of kindness, righteousness, energy and strength to those around him.”

At Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, the first baby was born at 2:22 a.m. No other details were provided.

At Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, the first baby came at 2:47 a.m. Ran Duan and Jerry Zhang of Mountain View welcomed their first child — a daughter they named Rania Zhang. Rania is also the first grandchild in the family.

“We are thrilled she’s our dragon baby,” Jerry Zhang said, referring to the current Chinese zodiac sign.

Santa Clara parents Shivangi and Vivek welcomed a baby boy on Jan. 1 at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. (Photo courtesy of El Camino Hospital)

The dragon represents power, strength, wisdom and luck, and her parents said that having a child born in the Year of the Dragon is a source of pride. The 2025 Chinese New Year is on Jan. 29, which will ring in the start of the Year of the Snake.

Despite being California’s second-largest county-owned health system, Santa Clara Valley Healthcare didn’t welcome its first baby of the year until 8:28 a.m.

Baby boy Nguyen, whose parents haven’t decided on a name yet, was born at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose and weighed in at 6 pounds, 14.8 ounces.