Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Adeline Mary Williams brings big smiles from her parents, Casey and Eric Williams, on Tuesday, hours after she became Nashua's first baby of 2019. The Nashua couple also have a son, Declan, 21 months.

NASHUA – When Nashua residents Eric and Casey Williams learned their second child and first daughter would more than likely be arriving a bit on the early side, they began envisioning a Christmas baby.

But little Adeline Mary Williams had other ideas, opting instead for the little bit of celebrity that comes with being Nashua’s first baby of the new year.

Adeline, the first of two babies born Tuesday morning at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, came into the world at 1:51 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces and measuring 18 1/2 inches in length.

Medical Center spokeswoman Jackie Clancy said the second baby of the new year arrived at 3:30 a.m., about an hour and a half after Adeline.

St. Joseph Hospital reported no babies born as of Tuesday afternoon.

According to an unconfirmed report, a baby was born minutes after midnight at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, almost certainly making him or her New Hampshire’s first baby of 2019.

Over the border in Massachusetts, Sara Marielle Lyons arrived just four minutes past midnight at Lowell General Hospital to take that city’s first-baby honors.

She is the daughter of Scott and Mara Lyons of Lowell, and sister of Steven, age 4.

And down in Boston, New England Cable News reported Tuesday that the city’s, and surely Massachusetts’s and New England’s, first baby of 2019 was born at Boston Medical Center “exactly at midnight.”

By coincidence, the girl, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 1.6 ounces and measures 19.5 inches long, is named Adeline Bridie Brennan – giving her and Nashua’s first 2019 baby something else in common.

As for Nashua’s Adeline, she will soon meet her big brother, Declan, who, at 21 months, is already excited about having a little sister, their mom said.

“I think he’s going to be a helper,” Casey Williams said. “He already showing signs he wants to be there to help with the new baby.”

Also taking turns visiting the new parents in the Medical Center’s The Birth Place were both sets of proud grandparents, Joe and Jill Williams and Frank and Theresa Hannigan.

According to the New York-based United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), experts estimated 33 babies would be born in New Hampshire on this New Years Day.

The agency, which tracks statistics and trends and “celebrates babies born on New Years Day around the world,” predicted 11 of New Hampshire’s Jan. 1 babies would be born in Hillsborough County, while Rockingham County would have seven, Merrimack County four, and Strafford County three.

The other counties were expected to have one or two Jan. 1 births, according to the agency.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.