Fireworks greet first New Year's baby
Parents ring in 2021 with healthy son while viewing fireworks from hospital
The new year was less than a minute old when Wyatt Hudson Van Steinburg came into the world at Calgary's South Health Campus.
The child is Alberta's New Year's baby for 2021, born to engaged parents Chantel Saunders and Derek Van Steinburg only 52 seconds after midnight Thursday.
The couple watched fireworks from their hospital room as their baby was born, an unforgettable way of ringing in 2021.
“It was pretty crazy, and it came pretty fast, too,” Saunders said Friday evening, as the couple was preparing to leave the hospital with their newborn for the first time.
“Where we were labour-wise, we were really hoping (to have the New Year's baby), but the way it panned out, we learned about 20 minutes before (that) it was likely,” she added.
Wyatt was due Dec. 30, but when he didn't arrive on time, Saunders decided to enter induced labour because her fiancé was scheduled to return to work in northern Alberta on Saturday. She was booked in on the 31st to ensure the couple was able to celebrate the birth together.
“I was getting worried I would have to go back to work, and I took all of December off because the nurses said she was probably going to be two weeks early,” Van Steinburg said. “I almost took a month off for nothing, but I'm glad it came at the end of this.”
Wyatt is the couple's second child, joining his elder brother Lincoln at home Friday. He was eight pounds and seven ounces at birth, and his parents reported he was happy and healthy.
With his birth coming so soon after midnight, Wyatt is Alberta's New Year's baby, with the family saying nurses informed them it was the first birth of 2021.
Alberta Health Services said this week they would not be announcing a New Year's baby, breaking from a long-standing tradition due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We congratulate families on their new additions and welcome these brand-new Albertans to the world,” AHS said in a statement Wednesday.
The province said they expect to resume the New Year's baby tradition in 2022.
The experience of having a child during the pandemic was a strange one, the new parents said, but hospital staff worked hard to make it a comfortable and memorable experience.
“The nurses were all really good about it,” Van Steinburg said. “The nursing team last night that delivered was awesome. They made it really fun. We didn't know anybody, but we were best friends by the end of it.”