Special day for baby born at Waitākere Hospital during lockdown

Keanu, a chubby bundle of joy from West Auckland who was born into a world of unknowns, is celebrating his first birthday. Photo / Supplied

A chubby wee baby born into a world of unknowns is celebrating his first birthday.

Dayarna Tanenui, 21, still feels sadness when she remembers the silence that filled the Waitākere Hospital delivery room as she gave birth in the early hours of March 29 last year.

It sent shivers up her arms as she entered the emergency room in labour, wading through the Covid-19 checks, four days into a nationwide lockdown.

"I missed out on family visiting with flowers... I didn't get to hold my baby because he had to be hooked up to machines straight away... I was left alone for two hours after giving birth," Tanenui told the Herald on Sunday.

Later that day New Zealand lost its first victim to Covid-19.

It was the stress of the pandemic that triggered Keanu to arrive six weeks before his due date, Tanenui said.

Weighing 7 pounds 6 ounces (3.3kg) at birth, "the nurses said he was the biggest prem baby they'd ever seen," she said.

Baby Keanu fought for his life inside an incubator for three weeks at the hospital's Specialist Care Baby Unit (SCBU).

Despite being born six weeks premature, Keanu weighed 7lb 6oz (3.34kg) at birth. Photo / Supplied

Only one parent could be by their son's side at a time, so Tanenui and her partner Arden-lee Hodgson took turns.

She would spend seven hours at the hospital while her partner was at home looking after their other son Kingston, who was only a year old, then they would switch.

"It was really hard. I cried when I was away from Kingston and I cried when I wasn't at the hospital with Keanu."

At one point Tanenui rang to beg for them to visit together as a family but was told that wasn't possible.

"There were always debates over who could be there for his first bath or at Easter. My partner always let me go because I was so emotional," Tanenui said.

Baby Keanu spent another week in hospital before he was allowed to come home to meet his older brother - "they are obsessed with each other".

"My mum met him through a window, she couldn't come in, and she cried."

She and other members of the family had to wait until New Zealand moved to alert level two on May 14 until they could properly meet and cuddle baby Keanu.

"I had a really traumatic first birth and suffered post-natal and pre-natal depression and it was my family that got me through, so it was really hard without them."

A year on, the family has now marked many milestones together with their "calm and rolly" baby.

Monday will be no exception. It's baby Keanu's first birthday and the family plan to spend the day at Splash Pad.

"He absolutely loves water and we'll just have a barbecue together, as a family, just something small."

Asked what she will tell her baby of his birth when he grows up, Tanenui said: "I will tell him he is our very special lockdown baby."