Whitehorse family deals with a positive COVID-19 test and welcomes new baby all in 24 hours

When Whitehorse's Alden Gryba looks back on this pandemic,he'll have quite the story to tell.

Last week,the two-year-oldbecame a big brother just a few hours after testing positive for COVID-19.

His story is just onepartof a whirlwind 24 hours for his parents, Conrad Gryba and Shari-Lynn MacLellan, who welcomed their new baby lastThursday.

"It was a stressful day for sure," said Grybain an interview on CBC Radio's Yukon Morning with host Elyn Jons.

"We have found so many silver linings, but [it was] definitely surreal."

COVID-19 spreads at daycare

It all began last week, when rumours of a positive COVID-19 case began circulating at Alden's daycare.

Then, onMonday night, a positive case confirmed at Bambino's daycare in Whitehorse followed soon after by 18 more.

With other daycare-based outbreaks reported, parents across Yukon have been asked to keep their kids home for two weeks, if they can.

That advice came too late for Alden, whose parents found out that he had tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.

"We just kind of went into emergency management mode," said MacLellan. "You know, just figuring out what we have to do first and what we have to do second."

The next few hours were spent retracing their steps, contactingfriends they had been in touch with recently, and arranging rapid tests for themselves.

A new baby arrives

It was during that COVID-19 test thatMacLellan started feeling contractions.

"I think our little baby decided that she didn't want us to stress out too much about what to do in the next few days while we were, you know, getting ready to have her," she said.

The couple got to the hospital just in time.

"It was very lucky thatwe didn't hit any major traffic delays because we rolled in... and within minutes the baby was born," said Gryba.

Juniper Robin MacLellan was delivered at 12:53 a.m. on June 24, arriving just as her parents were told their COVID-19tests were negative.

Alden, meanwhile, has yet to meet his little sister. He's isolating with his grandparents, who say he's showing very few symptoms of the virus.

"We're super lucky...my parents live right next door to us," said MacLellan. "So they're a big part of his life regularly and they were really easily able to step in and take care of him."

The couple also say thatbeingdouble vaccinated helped alleviate a lot of their stress.

"It just validates so much the importance of being vaccinated, especially if you're pregnant, especially if you have kids in your life," said MacLellan. "I can't imagine if we weren't vaccinated and going through this."

A family reunion

MacLellan and Gryba couple say they are now taking advantage of a unique opportunity to have alone time with their second-born child.

Still, they miss Alden and look forward to the entire family being together for the first time.

Their son's two week isolation is set to end July 3rd.

"He's been talking about meeting his baby sister and he's been talking about singing songs to her," said Gryba. "It's been a big part of his life knowing that he's going to be a big brother."