Born at 1:11, County’s First Baby of ’99 Makes Her Point

When Julietta Leon decides to finish first, she does it in style.

She came into the world on the first day of the first month of the new year--and, for good measure, she did it at 1:11 a.m.

Julietta, Ventura County’s first baby of 1999, was born to 38-year-old Josefina Leon at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

Julietta, her mother’s sixth child, came in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 22 1/2 inches from head to toe. She’s also healthy, pink and has a full head of dark hair.

On New Year’s Day, Julietta’s father, Eleazar Leon, 39, and her five brothers and sisters--ages 16, 10, 9, 2 and 1--gleefully crowded into her mother’s hospital room. Josefina Leon’s sister, Luz Alvarado, who works as a nurse’s aide at the hospital, was also on hand for the celebration.

The Leons have lived in Oxnard 18 years. Both parents work in the strawberry fields.

Scheduled to arrive Dec. 31, Julietta started right on time.

Mom checked into the hospital at 7 a.m. Thursday and went into labor at 7:30 a.m. About 16 hours later as midnight neared, her doctor playfully urged her to deliver soon and enjoy a tax break for 1998.

The expectant mother was all for it, but her daughter couldn’t be persuaded to greet the world for another 90 minutes or so.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Day, still exhausted after her 17-hour labor, Josefina Luna simply called her baby beautiful.

Only hours old, Julietta was already a hospital celebrity. TV crews and newspaper reporters were visiting all day.

“She started a lot of commotion,” Alvarado said. “She started crying a little more, so I guess she knows . . . or she’ll know in a few years.”