Special delivery! Fountain Valley Regional welcomes first baby born on New Year’s Day

At 3:30 a.m. Saturday, while most New Year’s Eve revelers were already fast asleep, baby Sara Rose took her first breath at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, becoming the facility’s first baby of 2022.

The daughter of Patricia Santos-Sibrian and Jorge Vialla, of Santa Ana, Sara was born following an unscheduled Cesarean section birth on New Year’s Day, coming in at 7 pounds even.

Santos-Sibrian, 38, confirmed Monday the new baby was her sixth — older children range in age from 23 to 2 — and her third delivery at Fountain Valley Regional. While the routine may have been a familiar one, Sara’s birth was somewhat unique.

For example, while the previous births happened quickly, the most recent delivery took some time. The couple arrived at the hospital Wednesday and had no idea the labor would continue into the next calendar year.

Baby Sara Rose was born at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Saturday at 3:30 a.m., making her the first baby to be born at the facility in 2022.

(Courtesy of Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center)

When it was time for the C-section to take place, Santos-Sibrian — and baby Sara — were in good hands. Assisting in the birth was nurse Dorothy Wilson, who’s worked at Fountain Valley Hospital since 1971 and in that time has helped deliver so many babies, she’s lost count.

“For a long time, we were doing 3,000 babies a year for quite a few years,” said Wilson, who started in the nursery in 1982 and works as a neonatal specialist. “I wouldn’t even know how to start to add it up.”

Despite the breadth of her experience, Wilson said Monday the first baby of the new year is always a special occasion.

“We always are interested in who’s going to be the New Year’s baby,” she added. “That baby, I think, is always very special no matter who it is.”

To mark the occasion, the reigning Miss Fountain Valley Maaikee Pronda came to the hospital, fresh off of a 10k New Years Day run, bearing a gift basket assembled by volunteers from the Miss Fountain Valley Scholarship program.

Though Sara’s birth took place early in the morning, it was just one hour shy of the county’s first recorded birth, which Fountain Valley Regional spokeswoman Jennifer Bayer said reportedly took place at Orange Coast Memorial at around 2:20 a.m. Saturday.

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