It's a boy: Ventura County's first baby of 2022 will head home to Santa Paula
On New Year's Day, a warm family welcome awaited the first baby born in a Ventura County hospital in 2022.
At 12:13 a.m. Saturday, Santa Paula resident Ariana Ambriz-Torres, 30, gave birth to a boy at Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura.
As of late Saturday morning, Ambriz-Torres was still deciding on the child's name. She knew it needed to start with the letter "A." That way, he'll match his mother and three older siblings: Annie,14; Amberly, 11; and Alsredo, 9.
Ambriz-Torres, a single mother, spoke by phone from her hospital room. Hospital staff took photos of mother and son. The newborn was dressed in a white onesie bearing a shiny gold "2022" across his chest. Silver-sparkle script read "baby new year" above Ventura County Medical Center's logo. A red-and-white striped stocking cap warmed the infant's head with holiday colors.
At the mother and son's Santa Paula home, family members were looking forward to meeting the boy, said Ambriz-Torres, who lives with her mother, two brothers and three sisters.
"They're very supportive," she said.
Ambriz-Torres arrived at Ventura County Medical Center at 8 a.m. on New Year's Eve because she couldn't sleep. She was feeling nervous. It had been awhile since she last gave birth.
"I had forgotten what it was like to go through pregnancy," she said.
But it was a good pregnancy, she said, and she delivered her baby naturally.
Although Ambriz-Torres wasn't planning on delivering her son on the first day of the year, she said she was excited for a new start.
Other hospitals around the county also celebrated the year's first-born babies in their wards. Santa Paula Hospital's arrived at 12:43 a.m. Adventist Health Simi Valley followed at 2:18 a.m. More than an hour later, at 3:39 a.m., St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard welcomed its first 2022 baby — a girl, Thea Calabrese — and the mother-infant unit team gave mom and dad a gift basket, hospital officials said.
At 4:54 a.m. in Ventura, Community Memorial Hospital staff welcomed their first delivery, with Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks following at 6:17 a.m.
Ambriz-Torres said she was "very excited" to learn her son was the first baby born this year in a local hospital.
Cytlalli Salgado is a breaking news reporter for the Ventura County Star. She can be reached by calling 805-437-0257 or emailing cytlalli.salgado@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County's first baby of 2022 will head home to Santa Paula
