It’s a Girl! : Orange County’s First Baby of ’88 Toasted With Cider

The doctor went for his camera, the nurses brought out the cider and Paul Cuevas toasted in the New Year after helping to deliver his daughter, believed to be Orange County’s first birth of 1988.

Beatrice Medel Cuevas arrived at a second after midnight at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, a hospital spokesman said.

Martha Cuevas, 23, was in labor for 11 hours--”a long time,” she said Friday. Her husband, who had been trained in Lamaze natural childbirth techniques, said he “was relieved and happy when the baby was born.”

A little celebration erupted at the birth of his daughter, Cuevas said.

“It was New Year’s. . . . The doctor smiled, and he started taking pictures of us in the delivery room,” Cuevas said. “This nurse came in with a little cider, and we had a round of toasts to celebrate the New Year.”

Martha Cuevas, too tired to join the toast, said: “I could see that everybody was so happy and excited about the baby being born on New Year’s.”

But when she was told that Beatrice was the county’s first baby of 1988, she got on the phone to relatives in her native Guanajuato, Mexico.

“It was already 2 a.m. there,” she said. “But they were all excited and started celebrating New Year’s again.”

Beatrice, who weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long, is the second child for the couple, who live in Corona. Beatrice’s sister, Cynthia, 5, was as excited as her parents about the birth, they said.

Martha Cuevas, a homemaker, said her husband, a 27-year-old technician at an Irvine instrument testing firm, have not decided whether to have other children.

“I just don’t know yet. . . . All I can think about is enjoying this one,” she said.

Paul Cuevas added: “I thought I would be pretty relaxed this time, because this is my second one. . . . But I got so nervous again. Having babies is hard.”