Vancouver Island’s first baby of 2023 was born 12:15 a.m. at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
Shaun Alexander Grant, the first child for Taylor Grant and Emma Wright of Nanaimo, arrived two days past his due date, weighing seven pounds, 10 ounces.
Finding their baby was the first on the Island was a “nice surprise,” said Grant, 30.
He and Wright recently moved to the area from Ontario, where their extended families still live, to be closer to nature.
Wright said that the pregnancy was helped by that fact her mother had come to visit for the holidays.
“It was an easy process, thanks to my mom,” said Wright, 25, who was in labour for about seven hours. “It was the first time and everything was all new — I questioned every little twinge. It was nice having my mom’s experience to guide us.”
They named their first-born after Wright’s grandfather, who lives in Ontario.
The couple, who knew the sex of the child ahead of time, has already prepared a room full of animals for the newest member of the family.
“He will be coming home to a mini zoo,” said Grant, who has filled the room with stuffed animals and pictures of animals and nature on the walls.
The couple wanted to give a shout-out to the medical care that they received since they got here.
“We have found people here to be really nice, nicer than in Ontario,” Wright said. “We are really grateful to the staff here at the hospital.”
B.C.’s first baby of 2023 was a girl born at two minutes past midnight at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital, weighing five pounds, 10 ounces.
She was the first of approximately 40,000 babies expected to be born in British Columbia this year. More than 37,800 babies were born in B.C. in 2022.
