New Bay Area parents retell their New Year’s Day 2026 stories as a day they’ll never forget

What are the chances that a new chapter for a family begins at the start of a new year? Some might call it coincidence, serendipity, fortuitous, or just good fortune. But for a handful of Bay Area couples in San Jose and San Leandro, they called it a newborn – the firsts in the Bay Area to grace the year 2026.

The newest Bay Area residents came in quick succession on Jan. 1, with two babies born at Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center at 12:03 a.m. and 12:07 a.m., respectively,...