Shay-lynn Smith didn’t expect she would deliver her first child 25 days early, but she wasn’t totally surprised, as both she and the baby’s father, Cory Fortin, were both born before their due dates many years ago.
“We were both pre-mees, too,” Smith said Friday from Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan where she had delivered Camdyn Lynn Fortin at 2:05 a.m. Thursday. “Cory was only two weeks early, but he was 4 pounds, 15 ounces and I was 5 pounds, 12 ounces.”
Camdyn Lynn Fortin arrived 25 days before her due date at 2:05 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, the first baby born in the Skowhegan-Waterville area in 2020. Shay-lynn Smith photo
Camdyn was the first baby born in the new year in the Waterville-Skowhegan area, weighing in at 4.7 pounds. She was 17 1/4 inches long and was born with thick brown hair, according to her mother.
“She’s absolutely perfect,” a jubilant Smith said. “I’ve been in awe of her the past few days.”
Smith, 23, and Fortin, 26, recently bought a house in Cornville, and they expect to be able to take Camdyn home Sunday or Monday. Fortin’s parents, Patricia and Dana Fortin, also live in Cornville, and Cory grew up in that town. Smith’s mother, Brandie Smith, is from Madison, and her father, Michael Smith, is from Norridgewock.
Shay-lynn Smith works as an intake officer for the transportation department at Kennebec Valley Community Action Program in Waterville. Fortin works for H.E. Callahan Construction Co., based in Auburn. They named their baby “Camdyn,” in part, because her initials would be the same as her father’s, Shay-lynn Smith said.
She said she went into the hospital Wednesday and her water broke at 10:05 p.m. that evening. Her doctor, Alicia Forster, delivered Camdyn at 2:05 a.m. Thursday.
“It was fast — it was really fast,” Smith said. “I had been 3 to 4 centimeters for a couple of weeks, and I went from 5 to 7 to 9 within 2 hours.”
Forster, she said, is a wonderful doctor and especially dear to Shay-lynn Smith for another reason:
“She delivered me — and my brother,” she said.
Redington-Fairview’s birthing center also is top notch, she said, and is taking great care of both mom and baby.
“They’ve been really good,” she said.
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