Porterville's first baby of 2009 is Valley's first baby of the year

One Lindsay family was celebrating New Year’s Day with a bang they will never forget — welcoming their first-born child, born exactly at midnight, into their hearts and into the world.

“I had no idea this would happen,” the child’s mother, Yesenia Orozco, 20, said on Thursday.

Orozco arrived Wednesday at Sierra View District Hospital with what she believed to be false labor pains.

“The baby was not due until Jan. 11,” Yesenia’s sister, Olivia Orozco, said. “She was coming in just for a quick check and thought she’d be going right home.”

But the baby, named Uriel Lira, had plans of his own and nothing was going to stop his grand entrance.

“It was very exciting,” the baby’s father, Eliseo Lira, said. “There was confetti and the nurses in the delivery room all wore New Year hats and we all started jumping up and down and cheering.”

The father said he never felt more proud as he cut his son’s umbilical cord shortly after the doctor, La Tonya Lee of Family HealthCare Network, delivered the baby.

“It was a very nice surprise,” Eliseo Lira said. “He’ll be famous.”

During the delivery, grandmother Herminia Orozco said she had a hard time keeping her eyes only on her daughter.

“I kept looking up at the clock,” Herminia Orozco said. “And as the clock hit 12, I heard the baby crying.”

A couple of minutes later, other hospital staff joined in the celebration, blowing New Year’s party horn blowers and other noise makers — making for a day that the family, and hospital staff, said they will never forget.

“They were all so wonderful. Everyone wanted to see the new baby,” Yesenia Orozco said. “I am very happy to have the first baby of the year.”

Family members said they were grateful to God for the baby’s health, grateful for the care and love they received from the hospital staff, and grateful for the generous gifts the hospital and community bestowed upon them.

Two baskets, loaded with everything a newborn baby may need from onesies and booties to formula, diapers and blankets, were presented to the family.

In addition, a floral arrangement and an array of gift certificates were also presented to the parents.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” Ramona Contreras, Sierra View’s director of marketing and community relations, said. “We spent a lot of time soliciting collections from community businesses to welcome the new baby to the world. Babies are expensive so it is nice to start off on a right foot. This baby is set.”

There was more good news: Baby Uriel is also the first baby of the year born in the San Joaquin Valley.

The official notice was delivered to the parents shortly after noon Thursday at Sierra View by Dave Neal, the hospital’s director of Women Services.

Wearing a white onesie with blue lettering that read “Sierra View District Hospital New Year Baby 2009,” Uriel was oblivious to the commotion around him as family members continued to marvel at his perfection.

They spent the morning calling family members, including Eliseo Lira’s mother, Lucila Lemus, in Mexico, to share the exciting news about the baby, who measured 19 inches and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces.

The Porterville baby was born just ahead of a baby girl born in Selma at 12:01 a.m.

Miriam Castaneda, 19, of Kerman, entered Selma Community Hospital at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, never thinking that her baby would be born so close to midnight.

“I really thought I was having the baby right then,” Castaneda said. “I did not know it would take so long.”

Castaneda and the baby girl, who is not yet named, are doing well. The baby’s sister, Leslie, 1, and father, Roberto Lopez, are excited about the birth, Castaneda said.

Another baby, Tyler Moore, was born at 2:46 a.m. to Eenang See and Matthew Moore at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, said Kimberley Palermo, Kaweah Delta’s marketing specialist.

-- Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1047, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.