While people across British Columbia rang in the 2025 New Year, one B.C. family was welcoming new life and the province's first baby of the year into the world.
Just two minutes into the New Year, at 12:02 a.m., Jordan Hill (32), with partner Elijah (28) by her side, gave birth to their son, Emerson at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
Emerson, weighing in at seven pounds, 10 ounces is Elijah and Jordan's first child.
"We're beyond over the moon, we're super excited," said Elijah. "This is our first child so we had a lot of uncertainties and unknowns about what to expect but everything has been amazing, the staff has been great to work with, we're just super excited to have a healthy baby."
For Jordan, contractions started at 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning and they were admitted into Royal Inland around 7:30 p.m. Just a few hours later, Emerson was born.
Over the last nine months, both Jordan and Elijah had the thought in the back of their minds that their baby could be born on Jan. 1 but never thought it would actually happen.
"We had thought about it but we never really thought it'll be a real thing until we got admitted," said Elijah, who added the baby due date was Jan. 3.
Little Emerson is also a duel citizen as Elijah is American and splits time between Kamloops and Olympia, Washington.
The new family of three will get to go home on Thursday morning, Jan. 2.
