It’s a girl! Baby Paisley makes wait worthwhile
When Shannon Barfield was admitted to hospital on Dec. 31 around 3 a.m., she thought her baby would be born on the last day of 2017.
Instead, daughter Paisley Barfield would arrive almost 21 hours later, holding out just long enough to become Saskatoon’s first baby of 2018.
Shannon, who is from the Saskatchewan community of Young, and her husband Brent, who’s originally from South Carolina, were thrilled after welcoming a healthy eight-pound, 15-ounce girl into the world on Jan. 1 at 12:04 a.m.
Paisley is the couple’s first child. “Not planned, it just happened,” said father Brent on Monday of his daughter’s status as the city’s New Year’s baby.
“The whole time, I really thought she was going to come on the 31st, because the labour was really long,” Shannon said while resting in bed at Royal University Hospital. “It wasn’t an easy labour, I’ll say that.”
Both Shannon and Brent said it was a nice surprise when she became the city’s first newborn of 2018.
“It’s so rare to have the New Year’s baby,” Shannon said.
Baby Paisley was awake as she was photographed with her parents, her tiny head poking out of the blanket.
The new baby will start her life in Saskatchewan as she’ll be headed back to Young, but Shannon said she’s in the process of joining her husband across the border.
Shannon said she’s been getting texts from people and that she’s been tagged a few times on Facebook because of the new arrival.