1st County Baby of ’98 Born to Simi Valley Couple

Like many other Ventura County couples, Debra and Phil Pench watched the ball dropping in Times Square Wednesday night.

But the Simi Valley couple were in a delivery room at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo--and as the tape-delayed crowd cheered in New York, Ryan Alan Pench became Ventura County’s first baby of the year.

Dr. Gary Swanson, who flipped on a TV set to watch the traditional New Year’s Eve telecast, urged Debra Pench on for a final push and the baby was born 26 seconds after midnight.

Ryan, who weighs 7 pounds, 3 ounces, was due Jan. 11. His early arrival was just a whim of nature and not the result of any special effort to be the first baby of 1998, his parents said.

The couple fielded jubilant phone calls from family and friends and basked in the brief fame that goes with delivering a first-of-the-year baby. After the delivery, nurses called other hospitals in the county to confirm the honor.

Although first in Ventura County, Ryan will not hold that distinction among Southern California babies: In Los Angeles County alone, at least three babies were born earlier. The first of these, a girl, was born to Olivia Ortega of Paramount one second after midnight, said Katherine Schiffman, assistant director of nurses at Suburban Medical Center in Paramount.

Father Phil Pench, however, said a birth 26 seconds before midnight would have been fine, too.

“Either I would have . . . [a] tax write-off or a New Year’s baby,” said Pench, 32.

Mother Debra Pench, 31, was just happy to be finished with pregnancy. “New Year’s is festive--now we have another reason to celebrate,” she said.