By Sheldon Spackman

Lacombe couple celebrates Red Deer’s first newborn of 2019

Jan 2, 2019 | 10:01 AM

Red Deer Regional Hospital didn’t have to wait too long for its New Year’s Baby to arrive.

At 1:31 a.m. on Jan 1, Darren Hicks and Corine Veenema of Lacombe welcomed Annalie Mathilda Hicks into the world, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Hicks says daughter Annalie seems to be happy and healthy so far.

“The dog’s a little put-out, the 20-month-old is a little bit jealous but he seems to be running around and checking on her every time she cries, so that’s probably a good sign,” he exclaims. “This one was a far better experience. We had a bit of a long labour with (son) William.”

Hicks is quick to give praise to the staff at Red Deer Regional Hospital, saying they are overjoyed with their experience.

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“Everybody there is just absolutely wonderful,” states Hicks. “The staff there, we can’t say enough thanks to them. They were just wonderful the whole time through, gave us everything and my wife especially, everything she needed and wanted, so we were very happy with that.”

Hicks says although their due date was January 1, the birth of Annalie still came as a surprise.

“We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl and we were both pleasantly surprised it was a girl,” he admits. “Over the next little while there’s just going to be a slew of family and friends coming through, so we’re basically taking schedules for people to come and see her. Then we’ll see if we can get her to feed and sleep on some sort of schedule and go from there.”

Annalie being the first baby born in Red Deer in 2019 is also something Darren and Corine are excited about.

“I think that’s something very special that she’s going to have for her whole life,” says Hicks. “That’s just an extra special way to start a year and extra special way for her to start her journey in life. It’s something very few people have in their life at all, so we’re extra proud, extra happy and this is just a great bonus or icing on the cake if you want to call it that.”