SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The first baby of the new year at Stanton Territorial Hospital may have been aware of an opportunity at a little bit of fame.

Little Thea Adeline Havioyak is cradled by her mother Dana Havioyak in their room at Stanton Territorial Hospital last Saturday. Thea was the first baby born at Stanton in 2016, coming into the world at 7:31 a.m. on New Year's Day. She weighed nine pounds, four ounces despite being born about a week early. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

Thea Adeline Havioyak came into the world at 7:31 a.m. on New Year's Day - almost a week before she was due.

The healthy baby weighed nine pounds, four ounces at birth, according to her mother Dana Havioyak. The 24-year-old woman recently moved to Yellowknife with her other children and her husband Gavin from Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Little Thea is the third child for Havioyak who already has a daughter and a son. Thea was delivered by Dr. Shana Johnson. The unofficial race for the first baby of the New Year was not even close. Thea was the only newborn in the obstetrics unit at Stanton as of Saturday morning.

Havioyak said the delivery went off without a hitch as she cradled her newborn in the quiet hospital room. lit only by the faint morning light outside on Saturday morning, a little more than 24 hours after she was born.

"The nurses kept saying, 'Our best bet is you,'" said Havioyak when asked when she found out her baby was the first one of the year.

"We never really gave it much thought. It doesn't really change anything. She was actually due on our daughter's birthday. Our daughter was more than willing to share her birthday but then she realized she'd have to share it will all her little friends, so we were aiming for any day other than January 7."

Havioyak said there was never any plan to have the first baby of the New Year. It was the nurses who actually made a fuss over it, she said.

"We received a gift basket from them. That was very sweet of them," Havioyak said.

Little Thea, born with a full head of dark hair, actually flashed a smile while her mother held her.

Havioyak also smiled when she heard the blasting from outside where construction crews are working on the very early stages of the city's new hospital.

"We heard it and it sounded like it was coming from inside the hospital so I was worried. But once we found out what it was - we're just used to it now," she said.