Richmond Hospital’s first baby of the year came a little bit early – maybe that’s why she’s a bit grumpy, her parents, Maria Crawford and Ian Whitaker told the Richmond News with a laugh.
The first baby of 2021 came at 4:03 a.m., Jan. 1, 2021, and not only was the baby girl the first to be born at Richmond Hospital, she was the first to be born within Vancouver Coastal Health.
This is the second daughter for Crawford and Whitaker, who live in Tsawwassen, and their second baby born at Richmond Hospital.
Crawford experienced complications during her first birth, but how she was cared for that time made her want to return to the same hospital.
“Everyone made sure I walked out of here so healthy - I had so much confidence coming back here for this pregnancy,” Crawford said.
Because of her previous pregnancy, this baby was induced a few weeks early and there was some “extra caution” around the delivery.
“We’re really grateful to all the doctors and the nurses – the entire staff – I felt very grateful for how they looked after Maria and the baby,” Whitaker said.
Crawford was able to have the same support network at the hospital this time, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant they couldn’t have visitors and both sets of grandparents weren’t able to come visit their newest grandchild.
Even their older daughter, Rose, couldn’t visit her baby sister in the hospital.
The Crawford-Whitaker baby weighed in at six pounds, three ounces.
While Rose has darker hair, her younger sister seems to have her mother’s Irish/English colour, Crawford explained.
Crawford said she’d hoped the baby would actually be born in 2020, despite the pandemic, but things didn’t go that way.
“I secretly wanted her to be born in 2020 because… others would have said it was the year of the pandemic, I could say it was the year my daughter was born – it would have superseded everything else in my mind,” Crawford.
The Crawford-Whitaker baby doesn’t have a name yet.
