White Rock’s Tiffany and Rob Baldwin thought they had plans for the birth of their second child well in place.
“We planned on having her at home,” Tiffany said. “We had a big tub here and we’d moved all the furniture for it.”
But young Ryan Allegra Grace Baldwin obviously had different plans, arriving at 3 a.m. Jan 1. at Peace Arch Hospital – making her White Rock’s New Year Baby for 2012.
Weighing in at seven pounds, 15 ounces, a sleepy Ryan was settling in comfortably at home with mom and dad and brother Jordan, five, when Peace Arch News caught up with them Monday morning.
Neither Tiffany, an on-call elementary school teacher for Surrey School District, or Rob, a tomato greenhouse manager, had any notion their daughter would qualify as the New Year’s baby.
“We joked about it around 9 o’clock the night before,” Rob said. “But we thought we were a day or two away. Even when labour started, we were thinking six to eight hours.”
In contrast, the birth of Jordan had been an “epic” 24 hours of labour, they recalled.
Instead, Ryan, who was three days overdue, made up for lost time by being delivered just over an hour after contractions began.
“We barely made it to the hospital on time,” Rob said.
“I was having to hold back, because Rob had parked in the ambulance spot and he had to run and move the car,” Tiffany said. “The midwife was telling me ‘just pant.’”
Fortunately, Rob made it back in time for the delivery itself – which took just five minutes – but even then, had no idea Ryan was the New Year Baby.
“I always thought the first baby was usually a minute or so after 12,” Rob said.
But Ryan’s status received official confirmation when mom and baby were presented with an array gifts from the hospital and auxiliary, including a vase full of roses, a pink teddy bear, a sleeper set with the legend ‘I was born at Peace Arch Hospital’ and pink knitted boots and hat.
The Baldwins couldn’t be more White Rock; they grew up in the town – Tiffany is a Semiahmoo grad, while Rob attended Marriott – and they were married on the grass beside the White Rock itself. (Rob isn’t related to newly-elected mayor Wayne Baldwin, incidentally, though Tiffany went to school with his daughter, Julie).
They’re going to continue to live in their hillside home for at least a couple of years, Tiffany said, although acknowledging “it’s going to be a tight squeeze.”
But they’re clearly joyful and contented in welcoming the newest addition to the family.
And so is Jordan, although he was a little too shy to appear in a picture with mom and sister.
“Last night he whispered to me,” Tiffany said with a smile. “He said, ‘I didn’t think I was going to like my little sister, but I do.’”
