One Yellowknife family got their final present of the holidays on the first day of the new year.
Griffin Wesley is officially the 2019 New Years baby of Yellowknife. Born to Krista and Jason Wesley at 4:17 p.m. on New Years Day, Griffin officially became the first child born in the capital city in 2019.
“It's the best Christmas present and new years present. We've been waiting for a couple weeks so to finally have them here it's all put together ,” said Krista Wesley.
Griffin, born at eight pounds, seven ounces, was right on time as his due date was the first day of the year and Krista said it had crossed her mind that she might have the first baby of the year but that she wasn't sure when Griffin was officially born in the late afternoon.
“We knew it was a possibility, we knew there was another girl here as well so we knew it was definitely a possibility but I don't think that at three in the afternoon I was thinking that we would still be the New Year baby.” said Krista. “It's crazy, especially because it was actually his due date, i didn't really expect him to come I thought he would come early so it was a bit of a shock so we're just happy to have him here on this side.”
Once the baby was born Krista, an x-ray technician at Stanton Hospital, wasn't far from her support system. While her family was with her, she said her co-workers were bringing her snacks from her usual unit in the hospital downstairs. She now says Griffin is healthy and doing well.
“He's doing very good, he sleeps a lot. he's been doing really good and figuring things out,” Krista said. “Thank you to the staff, the staff here are great and they helped me through everything. So just thank you to them.”
This year holds some extra symbolism to it, Griffin will most likely be the last New Year baby born at the current Stanton Hospital with the new hospital across the road expected to open in May of this year.
-- Correction: An earlier version of this story wrongfully stated Griffin and Krista's family name as Leslie. NNSL apologizes for the error and any confusion it may have caused.