Paige Dalby and Darren Peerens were prepared to go to the hospital Wednesday morning (Jan. 3) for Dalby’s caesarean section, but they weren’t expecting their newborn daughter Autumn Rose Peerens to be Parksville Qualicum Beach’s first baby of the new year.
Dalby, in an interview over the phone from North Island Hospital Comox Valley, said she was shocked and surprised Autumn Rose was the new year baby for the local region.
Peerens said he and Dalby drove up from Qualicum Beach and were at the hospital 6 a.m. Wednesday for Dalby’s C-section. Autumn Rose was born shortly after that at 8:40 a.m. weighing in at 8 lbs, 9 oz.
When it came to naming Autumn Rose, Peerens said, it wasn’t too difficult.
“We were going through names and all that and being this time of year, we liked the name Autumn. You don’t want to name a baby ‘Winter,” he said. “It (Autumn) is a good name that you can carry on once they’re older too.”
Peerens said Autumn Rose was red like a rose when she was born.
But Autumn Rose isn’t their first daughter.
Two-year-old Emma Peerens, who was born at the old Comox hospital, still hasn’t met her new little sister. Peerens said Emma is staying with a friend while he and Dalby went up to Comox.
“She (Emma) has been excited ever since she’s known that she’s going to have a baby sister,” Peerens said. “She carries her baby doll all around the house and everything just as if she was carrying a real baby and taking care of it and everything.”
Asked how she thinks Emma will react to meeting Autumn Rose, Dalby said she expects Emma to be a loving sister.
“She was just so excited; she’d be kissing my belly and rubbing her sister in my belly. She’s just all excited to be a big sister,” Dalby said.
This also wasn’t Dalby and Peerens first trip up to Comox for a birth.
“We’d come up for a natural birth (with Emma), and we ended up with complications and all that, so she ended up being born by c-section,” Peerens said. “The doctors said that (Paige) could try a natural birth again, but it was maybe better to go with a c-section.”
The couple and their newborn returned home Friday afternoon and by last weekend Autumn was settled into her new home.