Little Daisy Spencer’s journey into the world was a winding, careful one. Now, she and her family are safe and sound and they’re hoping to give back.
The infant girl, widely followed in Flin Flon due to her parents’ prominence in the community and the circumstances of her birth, has inspired her parents to make donations to various causes in their daughter’s name. The idea came to Daisy’s parents Noelle Drimmie and Mike Spencer in the days following her premature birth.
A total of 12 separate charitable organizations benefited from the initiative during the holiday season.
The story begins on a day in early September that seemed like just any other in Drimmie’s École McIsaac School classroom, where she works as an early-years teacher. The 2018-19 school year was less than two weeks old and Drimmie was 26 weeks pregnant.
During her lunch hour, the first-time mother’s water broke.
“I was kind of confused about what was happening with my body. I went and Googled ‘did my water break’ in my classroom while the kids were having lunch. That wasn’t helpful,” she said.
Without any conclusive answer, Drimmie taught her next class despite the discomfort. When the kids headed to gym class later in the afternoon, Drimmie went to the school’s office to speak with principal Miranda Bowman. When Bowman heard, she had one clear direction for Drimmie.
“She was very calm and just said ‘Go to the hospital,’” said Drimmie.
She and Spencer immediately made a beeline for Flin Flon General Hospital while Bowman stayed at the school to cover Drimmie’s last class of the day.
The couple had no plans in place for a premature birth.
“That Sunday the weekend prior, we were literally sitting at the kitchen table talking about where we were going to have Daisy because we didn’t know what the situation was going to be in Flin Flon in terms of having a doctor,” she said.
“Once my water broke, that changed.”
After a test, one of the medical staff at Flin Flon General Hospital confirmed suspicions.
“She said, ‘Yes, your water has broken. Yes, you’re going to have a premature baby. These are the things we are going to do; these are the tests that we’re going to do,’” said Drimmie.
Drimmie and Spencer were flown to Winnipeg that night.
“Mike went home and panic-packed over Facetime,” Drimmie recollected. While some parts of the family’s stay in Winnipeg moved quickly, Drimmie can still provide an in-depth summary of the events.
“He went around the house and I said ‘Bring that, bring that, bring that.’”
Once in Winnipeg, the pair were taken to Women’s Health Clinic.
“They were really impressed with what everybody in Flin Flon had done. They didn’t really have to do anything [at the clinic] once they admitted me.”
From there, tests were completed on both mother and child. The pregnancy became an unexpected waiting game. A doctor told Noelle that 90 per cent of all mothers give birth within a week of their water breaking.
“That was the window we were working with. Being only 28 and a bit weeks, it was pretty scary,” she said.
“I’d never thought about what having a premature baby would be like. It wasn’t part of anything I’d read. It wasn’t part of what we had discussed in any of my prenatal stuff. I didn’t know anybody who had been born prematurely. I had no reference point for what was going to happen to us.”
From there, the birth experience was a rollercoaster. Daisy was in breach. A caesarean section was required. Family came to spend time. Friends from the North called. Mother, father and baby rested. An umbilical cord issue arose.
One day, Drimmie woke up with a high temperature, then started bleeding and cramping. A brief precautionary visit to the delivery room was scheduled. That “brief visit” became an overnight stay.
“It was very loud. There were a lot of women having babies. You could hear one woman screaming, then a few minutes later, a baby screaming. We spent the night there – didn’t get a whole lot of sleep,” she said.
A surgeon came in with questions and few answers. Forms were signed. Worst-case scenarios were considered.
“Your head just goes to all these places that you don’t want it to go to, but you have to think about these things,” she said.
Surgery was scheduled. Drimmie went under the knife. The baby is coming, whether it’s ready or not.
“It was straight out of a scene from ‘ER’. It was very intense, but it was very professional, very organized. I just watched it all happen,” she recalled.
Then, it’s done.
Drimmie is wheeled out of the room. When she awakens, she’s told the news.
“I was on a hospital bed and a nurse or a doctor ... somebody, came up to me and said, ‘You have a daughter.’”
On Sept. 25, weighing in exactly at a diminutive but healthy three pounds, Daisy Ray Elizabeth Spencer entered the world.
Post-birth
Once she was born, baby Daisy went directly to the neonatal intensive care unit. Drimmie and Spencer moved into a room at Ronald McDonald House, located within walking distance from the hospital where Daisy was staying.
The baby was put into a portable unit that the couple nicknamed “the incubatormobile.” While Daisy couldn’t leave the hospital, her parents came to visit every day while medical professionals supervised her. The constant care allowed the new parents to be at ease.
“We were so calm about everything. Everybody was just so calm. We just tried to get a lot of rest, something most new parents just don’t get to do,” said Drimmie.
Gradually, the uncertainty about Daisy’s health faded. She grew gradually and dodged any major health issues.
“When you read statistics about premature babies and how there can be difficulties, cognitive difficulties, physical difficulties, all those things, you just don’t know. There’s a lot of what-ifs. Once she was born, all of that just sort of melted away and we could focus on her as a person; what she could do and her learning curve,” Drimmie said.
Meanwhile, support kept coming for the new family, not just from the medical crew in Winnipeg, but from friends and family near and far. At the family’s home in Flin Flon, there’s an entire shelf full of cards from loved ones. Most of the cards are in a box. There are literally too many to fit on the shelf.
“We just feel very lucky to be part of such a strong community, a giving community and a thoughtful community. Our family and friends have been so wonderful in helping us transition,” said Drimmie.
It’s that same support that helped jumpstart the next part of Daisy’s story.
Giving back
It was about 4 a.m. when the idea first hit her. Drimmie, a highly skilled photographer, first thought up a 12 Days of Christmas-themed shoot featuring Daisy for those near and dear to the family.
“When you have a baby, you find sleep in these weird three-hour chunks. During one of those semi-wakeful periods, I thought it would be good,” she said.
Then, another facet came to mind. Instead of just snapping some photos of the new baby in seasonal outfits, Drimmie would include donations to different community groups that had an impact on the family.
“I thought, ‘Maybe we should donate to 12 different charities?’, and I instantly thought of at least six groups or businesses that were linked to us in some way,” she said.
Over 12 days beginning on Dec. 12, Drimmie announced a donation to a new charitable group on social media. Some of the groups, like Ronald McDonald House, played an immediate role in Daisy’s story. Others, like the Flin Flon Public Library, are places Drimmie hopes her daughter can utilize as she grows up. Groups like the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank are included because of the necessity they have in the community.
“Every place we donated to had some tie-in either to me, to Daisy, our family. It was this lovely labour of love that felt incredibly good to do. It felt like a good thing to donate to all these wonderful people that helped us, since we were so stunned at the response we got,” said Drimmie.
“It seemed to all fit into place. Even though none of it was really planned, it all sort of fit together into a story that I can’t imagine any other way now.”
Given the gifts of a smooth birth, Daisy’s ongoing healthy condition and professional care at every turn, Drimmie sees the donations as the least they can do.
“We were given this gift of time and space and support. Giving back felt so necessary. Of course we had to do this. This is essential, because these places deserve support. It’s so simple, too. You go to their website and there’s a donate button and you know that it goes toward supporting families,” she said.
The long-term plan for Daisy and the family will hopefully be easier to follow than her birth plan. A series of follow-up medical appointments have been scheduled for Daisy, some in Flin Flon and others in Winnipeg. Daisy’s development will be watched closely by her parents. So far, she’s in perfect health.
As Daisy gets older, Drimmie hopes to continue the donations, adding gifts to other local groups that she may hold dear for events like birthdays or Christmas. Drimmie got that idea from students like Nina Lukowich and Elizabeth Muldoon, both École McIsaac School pupils who deliberately refused gifts in favour of donations to charity in recent years.
“I know a lot of students who, for their birthday and things, they don’t ask for presents. They donate to groups and do all these wonderful charitable things. For that, I think Daisy could choose what things she wants to donate to and help out. It can become kind of an act of giving throughout the year,” the new mother said.
