First baby in Imperial County born to San Diego woman By VICTOR MORALES, Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008 8:01 PM PST
TODD KRAININ PHOTO
Hours-old James Taylor Esper is cradled by his mother, Melissa, who delivered her fourth child early after spending nearly a week in the sand dunes near Glamis.
BRAWLEY — James Taylor Esper may never call Imperial County home, but his birth certificate will forever be stamped with its seal as his mother, a San Diego County resident, gave birth to him early New Year’s Day, making him the county’s first reported birth for 2008.
Little James may not had been the county’s firstborn if the Esper family would have left the Imperial Recreational Sand Dunes on New Year’s Day like they had planned and returned to their home in the Clairemont suburb of San Diego. But after six days of recreating at the dunes, Melissa Esper realized James was ready for an early arrival after she spent a full day of riding in a Rhino, a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle.
Melissa Esper woke up to go the restroom about 1 a.m. Tuesday and noticed her water had broken. James Taylor wasn’t due until Jan. 20.
The little brown-haired, blue-eyed 7-pound-3-ounce boy was delivered at 5:22 a.m. at the Phyllis Dillard Family Medical Wing of Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley.
The trip from the dunes to Pioneers took just 20 minutes, in the family’s Ford 250, the 35-year-old Melissa Esper said. Two friends accompanied her and her husband.
Melissa Esper, her face glowing but still marked with the tan lines of riding goggles, sat comfortably in a chair at Pioneers on Tuesday, five hours after delivering her fourth child and first son. She cuddled James Taylor while he silently jammed his tiny fingers into his mouth.
James Taylor beat out three other pending births at Pioneers on New Year’s Day. The next baby arrived at 7:57 a.m.
El Centro Regional Medical Center reported its first baby of the year at 10:13 a.m.
“It’s very exciting and it was the last thing you’d expect,” Melissa Esper said of her son being the first born in the county.
The Espers had been at the dunes since Christmas Day with a large party, a family tradition.
“Obviously we did not let our due date deter us from going,” Melissa said.
Justin Esper, the baby‘s father, was resting at family camp in the dunes where he returned Tuesday.
" c'mon...seriously people...get a life! this girl is my friend and she would never put her children in harms way! "
VContreras wrote on Jan 7, 2008 8:05 PM:
" The baby probably came out because it had a headache!! At that stage, it's head down and there is not that much padding on her pelvic bone! Someone give that poor baby some baby tylenol! "
SusieQ wrote on Jan 7, 2008 2:56 PM:
" This lady is dumb for being out there. She probably had her two year old and 4 year old on their own atv's somewhere on their own out of sight and in dangers way. Not bright, lady. Not bright at all! "
killintime wrote on Jan 7, 2008 12:43 PM:
" Stupid lady...I hope she tied her tubes "
susflores wrote on Jan 6, 2008 1:08 PM:
" What a careless person, really. Makes me think that what dunlvr says might be true because what other reason would this woman have to be riding on rough terraine during the last trimester of pregnancy?
How sad that children don't have the option of picking their parents, because I know if he would have a voice he would not have choosen to be rushed into labor like this. She is darn right lucky. "
ricocafe99 wrote on Jan 6, 2008 12:28 PM:
" All of this "she is a woman and mother so she knows what she is doing" is unadulterated nonsense. Ask any ob/gyn where an expectant woman should be in her final weeks of pregnancy and I would bet a paycheck the answer is "at home resting"....and certainly not 4 wheeling in the desert!!! "
Dunlvr wrote on Jan 6, 2008 11:48 AM:
" I heard she was actually doing this before the new year came along to claim the baby in her income tax. It didn't happen the way she planned. HA! "
RN wrote on Jan 6, 2008 11:43 AM:
" Whether this woman has had previous experience in child bearing it doesn't mean she wasn't negligent in taking care of herself this time around. Any Ob/gyn Doctor will tell you to take it easy at 36 weeks and beyond. she should consider herself lucky that nothing happened to her and her baby. She put her baby in danger as far as I'm concerned. "
ddt wrote on Jan 5, 2008 2:53 PM:
" AAAGGGGH!! "
crubyman wrote on Jan 2, 2008 5:49 PM:
" trust the women!!! in some ways they are tougher than us,,, you cant beat a picture of a mom and her child on the first day of the New Year.....this is what life is all about!!!
FAMILY!!!!! "
cinoreah wrote on Jan 2, 2008 4:29 PM:
" Get a life people. That mother knew better than anybody else what she was doing. 38 years ago I was riding the dunes while pregs with my third child...in the days when dune bugs were pretty rough riding. My doctor told me I would know when to quit and that the baby would not be harmed. My last dune trip was 2 weeks before my son was born. I was not only riding in the bug, I also drove it. And in case you don't know...those Rhinos are very smooth riding vehicles...more so than a dune buggy. So get off her case. "
0069 wrote on Jan 2, 2008 9:32 AM:
" That's good everything turned out alright. But what was this lady thinking. Most moms would try and be careful and not have their babys bouncing up and down inside of them on a Rhino at the sand dunes. Heck ya the baby wanted to come out early, his head was probably half out after getting off the ride. "
ledman wrote on Jan 2, 2008 8:26 AM:
" Come on people this was her fourth child. She should know what she can and can't do. You can't stop living your life just because your PG. Some women do cause they like the attention. I would like to see a man 9 months along out there doing that. NO WAY! They would be crying. "
ricocafe99 wrote on Jan 2, 2008 7:50 AM:
" With the recent deaths of unsupervised children in the desert recreational areas and the probability of negligent permissive parents being the major factor in their deaths, this birth underscores the incompetence of some people to be parents. This woman should have been at home resting as her due date was upon her...if this baby had not been delivered healthily what the headline have been and what would the court of public opinion have had to say about her? "
newsguy wrote on Jan 2, 2008 2:34 AM:
" A four wheeled all terrain vehicle is nothing, I once saw a pregnant woman riding the Indiana Jones adventure ride at Disneyland. "
jsyi wrote on Jan 2, 2008 12:27 AM:
" not sure riding around while prego is a good thing...but appears alls well "
Log on
If you have an account already, just enter your Member ID and Password to access this page.
If you're new to our site, please create a new account.
Register FREE
To use certain features of ivpressonline.com, you must register FREE on the form provided. The Imperial Valley Press’ use of any personally identifying information you provide as part of registration is governed by the following privacy policy:
ivpressonline.com does not, and will not, release your personal information to any third party without your consent. We may, however, share some of the information we gather, in aggregate or demographic form, with advertisers and other partners. That is, we may provide general information about ways people use our site without identifying any particular individuals.
The opinions above are from readers of ivpressonline.com and in no way represent the views of the Imperial Valley Press staff or Schurz Communications Inc.
ivpressonline.com encourages readers to offer their opinions on our local stories. We ask readers keep their comments on topic and avoid derogatory comments about fellow readers. Our goal is to promote a civil discussion about the news.
We will never edit or alter comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain:
Subscribe Get the Imperial Valley Press every morning at your home or office. Start a subscription for your family, for yourself or give it to someone special. Click here.
Text Message AlertsReceive text message alerts on breaking news, latest updates, sports scores, offers and much more on your cellphone or PDA. Sign up here.
RegisterRegister free and start receiving email alerts on breaking news, a sneak preview of upcoming stories, reminders and much more. Click here to begin.
About UsWant to know more about the Imperial Valley Press? Want to contact us? Get general and contact information. Click here.
darwin2 wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:38 PM: