Perfect Mother’s Day Gift Is the One Delivered

Mike Ford, like many husbands, ran around Saturday trying to find a last-minute Mother’s Day present. All he could come up with was a box of chocolates for his pregnant spouse.

Good thing his wife of five years went into labor later that night.

“He’s excused,” Chrissy Ford said, holding eight-pound, 11-ounce Samuel, her third son. “This is plenty. It’s a gift that’s hard to top.”

Several women across Ventura County received the ultimate present this Mother’s Day. At least four babies were born in Oxnard on Sunday, three in Camarillo and one each in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

Chrissy Ford’s room at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo was filled with family members welcoming the latest addition Sunday afternoon. Samuel’s oldest brother was particularly excited.

“Guess what? We had a baby. I love it,” 4-year-old Conor announced. “But I was the first one.”

Conor and 2-year-old Cameron played on Mom’s hospital bed while she held Samuel, just hours after the delivery.

Samuel, who was not due for a couple weeks, caught the Fords by surprise.

“It was pretty ironic at 4 in the morning when we went to the hospital realizing this is Mother’s Day,” said Mike Ford, 32, a youth minister at Camarillo Community Church.

“Yeah, I was excited,” Chrissy Ford, 29, agreed, “until I started thinking of the labor.”

That ordeal took four hours. “I can’t say it was easy, but at least it was short,” she said.

Mary James, 38, of Simi Valley worked most of the weekend for her Mother’s Day gift. She was in labor nearly two days before her first daughter, Kira, was born Sunday just past midnight.

“I barely made it. Mother’s Day will always be special,” said James, who is married to a masonry contractor and has two sons, ages 4 and 15.

Back in the Ford’s hospital room, Dad was already thinking ahead.

“We started out thinking six kids; we always wanted a big family,” Mike Ford said. “But three boys is a lot to handle right now.”

“Should we try for a girl?” Chrissy Ford asked. “Maybe a daughter on Father’s Day.”