'It's just a joy': New Year's baby a welcome start to 2017 for Edmonton couple
Baby Joy Duop was born at 12:01 a.m. Sunday at the Royal Alexandra Hospital
She's barely a day old, but Edmonton's New Year's baby is already living up to her name.
Little Joy Lol Duop was welcomed into the world at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. Mother Nyadin Nyoak and father Lol Duop are thrilled to start the new year with the arrival of their sixth child — and the first baby born this year in Edmonton.
"It's just a joy," Nyoak said. "She's finally here, in the New Year. I was so happy. We were jumping up and down when the lady was telling us the news."
It's just a joy. She's finally here.- Nyadin Nyoak, mother
Weighing six pounds, six ounces, Joy and her mother are doing well recovering at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and are expected to return home Sunday evening or Monday morning.
Nyoak and Duop are originally from Sudan and came to Canada in 2003 as refugees. The couple now has four girls and two boys. Before Joy's arrival, the youngest child was seven years old. The oldest is 14.
Nyoak said she had a feeling her baby girl might be the New Year's baby. She was due Jan. 1, and she went into labour at 10 p.m. New Year's Eve — right on schedule.
Her eight-year-old daughter wished for a New Year's baby, she said.
Both mother and father are nursing assistants at Edmonton General Hospital, and Duop says this will be their last child.
He said he'd like to see his children working in the hospital some day, too. But for now, Joy is just working on sleeping, eating, and adjusting to the bright lights of the big world.
Their five other children are looking forward to meeting their new sister.
"They are so happy," Nyoak said.
Baby Joy was born one minute before Calgary's New Year's baby.
Baby boy Louie Oden Boudreau was born at Foothills Medical Centre at 12:02 a.m. to parents Tserennadmid Bayar and Steven Boudreau. He weighed six pounds, seven ounces.
