NorthBay Welcomes First Baby of 2019
Keani Diane Quitugua weighed just 8 pounds, 5 ounces when she was born Tuesday, Jan. 1, at NorthBay Medical Center - but she made big news across the Bay Area as the first baby born of 2019.
She joins a large, loving Fairfield family including mom, Elesha Matte, dad, Kamehameha Quitugua, and 9 (yes, 9) siblings.
Media outlets across Solano County and the San Francisco Bay Area picked up the story and came to photograph and video record the tiny celebrity.
Elesha explained to reporters that she came in Monday, Dec. 26, for a checkup and her doctors determined that the baby had shifted into a head-down position and the decision was made to induce labor. Elesha was induced in the morning on Dec. 31 and Keani arrived 13 hours later at 12:25 a.m. on New Year's Day.
Elesha said her daughter's name is Hawaiian, in keeping with her dad's heritage and that her name is defined as "breeze that carries the waves" in Hawaiian.
Media and her family weren't the only ones to dote over Keani. Staff presented her with a 53-inch plush teddy bear from the hospital gift shop.