Just minutes after midnight, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) welcomed its first baby of 2019 into the world.
Baby girl Mariella was born at 12:02 a.m. to parents Resi Olimpia and Martin Lachaine.
“We were hoping to have a New Year’s Eve baby,” Resi Olimpia Lachaine said.
“It was crazy. There was so much going on,” Martin Lachaine said, looking at his newborn daughter.
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She weighed in at eight pounds and 14.9 ounces.
“Both the baby and her mother, Olimpia, are doing well,” the hospital noted.
Cheers from hospital staff welcoming in the New Year rang though the hallways as Mariella was delivered.
“Considering you’re not in the party mood when you’re going through labour, it was amazing,” Resi Olimpia Lachaine said.
“While I was pushing, I heard the countdown and screamed “Happy New Year!'”
The couple donated Mariella’s umbilical cord blood to the public cord blood bank at Héma-Québec.
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“The stem cells will be used to develop a new transplant technique that may save the lives of adults suffering leukemia or lymphoma,” the hospital said.