County’s 1st Baby of ’97 Checks In at 3:05 A.M.

A few hours after midnight, delivery room nurses at St. John’s Regional Medical Center urged Lydia Fernandez to push harder so she would give birth to the first baby born in the new year in Ventura County.

Indeed, Fernandez pushed and the nurses were right.

At 3:05 a.m., Jan. 1, Maria Isabel Fernandez was born, edging out the next New Year’s baby by two hours.

For mom, Maria Isabel’s birth could not have come too soon.

Her doctor had set the due date for Dec. 20, but apparently little Maria Isabel was not ready to leave her mother’s womb.

Lydia Fernandez was ready.

“I just wanted the baby to be born,” said Fernandez, 20, who also has a 2-year-old son.

“I didn’t worry about anything else.”

Admitted into the Oxnard hospital about 9 p.m. Tuesday, the baby’s birth was easy, Fernandez said.

The young Oxnard resident said she and her husband, Santos, 28, were happy to have a girl join their family.

Lydia Fernandez hopes her daughter, born a healthy 7 pounds, 11 ounces, will be strong and successful in life.

But for now, she is just excited about dressing her up with ribbons and bows.

Fernandez said her son, Eduardo, was anxiously awaiting the baby’s arrival.

He would often sing Barney’s theme song to his unborn sister through his mother’s belly, Lydia Fernandez said.

The tot was with his mother when she began to feel the pangs of labor late New Year’s Eve.

He tried to comfort her by advising her to lie down, mother recalled, laughing.

Both mother and daughter are expected to return home today, hospital officials said.

“When my husband told me it was a girl, I got really excited,” Fernandez said.

“I feel very lucky.”