SYDNEY — Cape Breton’s first baby of 2021 didn‘t arrive on New Year’s Day.
But it didn’t take long on the second day of the new year for Theodore (Teddy) John Seesahai to make his first appearance. Mother Katie (nee McIntyre) delivered the seven-pound boy about 26 minutes past midnight on Saturday after showing up at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital to be monitored the previous day.
“We’re very happy – it’s all we could ask for to have a healthy baby,” said the happy new mother, whose husband Michael was present for the birth.
“We moved back home from Edmonton last January. We’re happy to be here and we’re looking forward to raising Teddy in Cape Breton.”
Ironically, Katie was the first baby born at the New Waterford Consolidated Hospital in 1987.
She said her pregnancy went well other than the fact she was forced to attend medical appointments on her own during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was tough at first because my husband couldn’t be there with me but once the restrictions were lifted it was okay.”
It should be noted that some expectant Cape Breton parents travel to St. Martha's Hospital in Antigonish to delivery their babies because in some cases it is closer than Sydney.
Meanwhile, the first baby to be born in Nova Scotia this year was delivered at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax just four minutes past midnight on January 1. The baby girl, whose parents are Claire McIntyre and Tyler Voeltz, was born just minutes after arriving at the hospital.
“The nurses delivered her, there wasn’t even time for the doctor to get there or the midwife,” McIntyre told Saltwire Network just hours after the delivery.
“I wanted her to be born in January 2021 rather and December 2020. I guess it was partly trying to move forward into the potential positivity of a new year and maybe also a bit about school stuff.”
The first baby born in Canada in 2021 was delivered in a Montréal hospital just as the clock struck midnight. His name is Arthur and he is the first child of Genevieve Beaulieu and Logan Allen. Arthur arrived less than a minute ahead of a baby called Thomas who was delivered in Toronto some 48 seconds later.