For the second time in a row, a Canadian couple is ringing in the New Year with an early bundle of joy.
On New Year's Day, Bobbi Jo and Kurtis Ketcheson became the proud parents of Grace Olivia, the first baby born in 2012 in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Believe it or not, Grace arrived exactly 365 days after her older brother Jack – who was the first New Year's baby in Regina, in 2011.
That brings the Ketcheson family to six, including another son born in late January, 2010, and who will soon be two, and an older daughter who was born in November, 2008 and who just turned three. Quite a handful for any young family.
Like her brother Jack, baby Olivia was born prematurely, arriving five weeks early and weighing just 4 pounds, 8 ounces. She is currently at the neonatal intensive care unit at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, where she is expected to remain for another two weeks or so.
But her mother, Bobbi Jo, says her newest baby is doing well.
"She's doing a lot better than Jack was doing on Jan. 3 last year. So we're really happy about that," Ketcheson told CTV's Canada AM via Skype from Medicine Hat, Tuesday.
This latest pregnancy was a bit of a surprise – but then again, so were all of Ketcheson's other pregnancies as well.
"I don't know if ‘surprise' is the right word anymore. We have managed to get pregnant four times on four different methods of birth control," Ketcheson said. "So like I joked, we are probably two of the most fertile people in Canada."
In fact, Ketcheson was only hours away from signing a consent form to have "her tubes tied" and undergo a tubal ligation when she found out she was pregnant with Grace.
Doctors gave the Ketchesons a Feb. 6 due date. So the couple was quite surprised when Graces decided to arrive extra early, on her older brother's birthday.
"It's not something we expected. It's something we joked about, but not something we thought would actually happen," Ketcheson says.
"We kind of knew I wouldn't make it to my due date because I'm usually so sick when I'm pregnant. But we didn't think it was going to happen on Jack's birthday," she added.
Not a single one of Bobbi Jo's pregnancies – or deliveries – have been what doctors would call "normal." In every one, she has suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness.
"I literally throw up from the moment of conception to the moment of delivery many, many, many times a day, even with lots of different medications," says Ketcheson.
"And then when I go into labour, it's extremely fast. I get vomiting and a headache, there's no contractions; I just have to push."
That's what happened on Jan. 1, as Ketcheson was doing laundry with her father. She gagged, ran to the kitchen sink, and then got a terrible headache that lasted about a minute.
She looked at her dad and said, "Oh no, call 911; I have to push."
Ketcheson made it to hospital only because Grace's chin became stuck, which slowed the delivery. Doctors were preparing to rush her into surgery for a C-section, when Ketcheson gave one final push and delivered Grace on the operating table.
The Ketchesons have now delivered one New Year baby in Saskatchewan and another in Alberta. So does this mean they might try for yet another in 2013 in another city further west?
"No it doesn't mean that; not even a little bit. We are not trying to take the West, so we won't be heading to B.C. next year," Ketcheson said with a laugh.
"We are done now. Two girls and two boys. We're going to do something a little more permanent in terms of birth control methods this time."
Until then, the family is enjoying their latest New Year's baby, clipping out the articles about their amazing story from local newspapers and pasting them into what will be a very interesting baby book for little Grace Olivia Ketcheson.
