

Chris Kitching, CP24.com





A Toronto-area mother accomplished a rare feat overnight when she gave birth to a Mississauga hospital’s last baby of 2013 and its first of 2014.

As revellers rang in the new year at parties and outdoor celebrations, the woman was giving birth to twin girls at Credit Valley Hospital. The babies were born minutes apart but they will celebrate different birthdates - Dec. 31, 2013 and Jan. 1, 2014.

Baby Gabriela arrived in the final moments of 2013, weighing six pounds and 16 ounces when she was born shortly before midnight.

Her sister Sophia was delivered 38 seconds after midnight and she weighed five pounds and 15 ounces.

Mom Lindsay Salgueiro said “crazy” is the only word to best describe the unusual situation.

“We were trying to have Sophia come out as well for the same year and date but she got a little bit stubborn and she didn’t want to come out,” Salgueiro told CP24 anchor Rena Heer by telephone. “She just wanted to make her debut for the new year.

“It’s an incredible story to be able to tell them when they grow up.”

Despite arriving 38 seconds into 2014, Sophia was not the GTA’s first New Year’s baby.

That title was shared by two newborns who wasted no time saying hello to 2014. Both were delivered exactly at 12 a.m.

One was a baby boy named James John Kennady, who weighed six pounds and six ounces when he arrived at the stroke of midnight at the Rouge Valley Centenary hospital campus in Scarborough. James' parents are mom Pradeepa and dad John.

“I am excited. I am too, too happy," said dad John Kennady Fernando.

At exactly the same time, baby Jenna Grace Cheaib was welcomed into the world at North York General Hospital. Jenna weighed seven pounds and 11 ounces.

“Everything went smoothly last night. She surprised us with her delivery and it all went well,” said mom Stefany Wilkins.

Wilkins’ due date was Dec. 31 but she was scheduled to be induced next week if her daughter didn’t arrive before then.

“She just decided to come out early,” Wilkins said by telephone.

St. Michael’s Hospital welcomed its first baby of 2014 two minutes and 36 seconds after midnight, while the first New Year’s baby at Mount Sinai Hospital was a boy who was delivered at 1:01 a.m.

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