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Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com
Veronica Rojik holds her newborn son Brandon Aiken on Tuesday in the maternal ward at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. The youngster was the city's first born child of 2013.
Veronica Rojik thought she might have a Christmas baby.
Never, during the course of her pregnancy, did she think she’d have Thunder Bay’s first baby of 2013; at least not until Boxing Day, three days after the due date given to her by doctors.
But 45 minutes into the new year, along came son Brandon Aiken, weighing in at seven pounds and two ounces.
“It was quick, painful, surprising,” she said Tuesday morning, still weary from the delivery that took less than an hour to complete.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen. I started getting pains at midnight, so I came here and had him by 1 a.m. So it was fast.”
Having the first baby of 2013 is a bit of a novelty for Rojik, who already has four children, and her fiancé Joe Aiken.
“It’s definitely different. The experience is interesting. It’s kind of neat. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I’m still pretty tired. But it’s pretty neat,” she said from her bed at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
One thing is certain, Rojik added.
“This is the last one. This is it. And he came at a perfect time,” said Rojik, who now has three girls and two boys, with Aiken adding a son of his own from a previous relationship to the Brady Bunch-like family menagerie.
She likes the fact that Brandon helps even out the odds.
“It’s pretty good. Now it’s even … So it’s three and three,” she said. “It’s interesting. It’s going to be exciting to go home and see how they all are.”
Rojik said she expected to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
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