New Year’s baby ‘was meant to be’

Javier Manuel Ramirez was the first baby born in Burbank in 2011, making his debut at 9:15 a.m., hospital officials said.

His mother, Flora de la Torre, 34, spent just over nine hours at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center before giving birth to her son, who weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces.

“We were getting together with family and trying to stay as calm as possible,” said de la Torre, who was expecting to deliver on Jan. 9.

But around 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, she and boyfriend Carlos M. Ramirez realized they couldn’t wait.

“We arrived at the hospital at 11:58 p.m.,” she said. “Then we said ‘Happy New Year’ while I had contractions.”

The birth was bittersweet for the mother after the death of her first child.

“This is the hospital where I had my first born,” said de la Torre, who lives in Los Angeles with Ramirez. “Everybody has been really nice and supportive, and I wanted to come back here.”

The parents barely finished painting the room last week, thinking they still had a few days before their son arrived.

When asked if Javier would be the next sports star, great artist or mathematician, his parents decided it would be all of the above.

Javier shares his father’s middle name, Manuel, and his first name shares a surprising connection with the title of Burbank’s New Year baby.

“I looked up his name, and it unexpectedly means ‘born in January,’” de la Torre said. “It’s like it was meant to be.”