The grandads called it.
When Ponoka residents Tanya and Kale Jones announced that they were expecting their first baby, both their fathers were convinced that the newcomer would arrive on New Year’s Day, even though Tanya had a due date of Feb. 10.
If there was a bet, the grandfathers won.
Central Alberta’s first baby for 2012, Nayt John Kerry Jones, made a premature arrival in Red Deer Regional Hospital at a minute after midnight, weighing in at just four pounds and two ounces (1.87 kilograms),
He is named for the two grandfathers, Kerry Grose and John Jones, of whom Grose was the first to say that he would be New Year’s baby, said Tanya.
He’s absolutely tiny with a hint of blond hair, she said.
While mom and son are both doing very well, the new baby is being kept in an incubator for now and getting his first meals from a tube while his immature system develops to the point where she can start nursing him.
The Joneses expect their baby will remain in hospital for a number of weeks, but Tanya expects to be able to start nursing him fairly soon.
Grandparents Kerry and Lesley Grose and John and Colleen Jones have both been to Red Deer from their homes in Ponoka to visit the newcomer whose birth his grandfathers had both predicted so accurately.
No more babies had been reported at other hospitals within the Alberta Health Services’ Central Zone as of 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com