It’s still hard for Renae DiGuardi-Yates and her husband Nicolas Yates to believe they have a newborn son.
“A little shocked,” Yates said. “I wasn’t expecting it, because after our second miscarriage it’s been a pretty good gap until he came along.”
After the pain of those losses, the two thought maybe being parents again just wasn’t for them.
“We had actually given up, or I guess come to the conclusion that if it happened it happened,” DiGuardi-Yates said. “But we weren’t going to actively try anymore and then credit him. And then the hurricane hit.”
She’s talking about Hurricane Harvey. The family had to leave their coastal Texas home and head inland. And with no electricity, let’s just say these two found something else to occupy their time.
“Well,” Yates said. “No cable.”
When they got back home, they expected damage to their house. But baby Owen, was Harvey’s welcome surprise.
“In the little app and everything that I was tracking him he was the hurricane Harvey baby,” DiGuardi-Yates said.
Dr. Roxanna Doucet, an OB-GYN at Corpus Christi Medical Center where the Yates’ delivered their baby, says they expect patients after severe storms, but this caught their attention.
“We noticed when the hurricane first hit,” Doucet said. “And all our volume in the office started going up. For our group alone, it’s gone up about 50 patients from last year to this year in terms of April to April. So, it’s been busy.”
Busy, yet exciting, she says to be able to bring happiness to people who have gone through so much.
“Many of these women were dealing with tragedies with these families,” Doucet said. “And their husbands dealing with broken homes or flooded homes, losing everything. And to deliver a baby and bring joy back to such a sad time is always, always rewarding.”
“He’s definitely bringing a lot of light and joy,” DiGuardi-Yates said of her son Owen.
These new parents are glad to know they are in good company, but not surprised.
“I figured it was going to happen,” Yates said.
“I thought it was hilarious,” DiGuardi-Yates said. “What do you do when the powers out?”
The sunshine after the storm, lighting up lives in unexpected ways.
