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Plant City Mom Takes First Birth Of '08 Honors

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By LINDSAY PETERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2008

Updated: 01/02/2008 12:11 pm

TAMPA - The race began about 11:30 p.m. Monday with two women in labor at Tampa General Hospital.

In one room, midwife Sally Soucy cheered her mom-to-be on. "C'mon, we can do this. We can do this."

Down the hall, obstetrician Cathy Lynch coaxed hers to keep pushing. "I knew we had competition in the other room," she said. "We were trying to get a healthy baby out."

Then Lynch heard the cheers from down the hall.

At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Miranda Cyrus, 21, of Plant City, gave birth to the first baby of 2008 in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Michael David Pierce Jr., 6 pounds, 11 ounces.

About four minutes later, Lynch's patient, Dayana Eid of Bolivia, held her 8-pound daughter, Danara.

Of course, it didn't matter who won. "The only thing important to me is that my baby is healthy," said 29-year-old Eid, through a hospital interpreter. Danara is her first.

It was, however, important to Soucy and Lynch that the first baby was born at TGH. About 11 p.m. Monday, Soucy said, nurses started checking with the other hospitals in the area, as they do every year, asking, "What do ya got?"

There were a couple of contenders, but by 11:30 they knew the first mother would be Cyrus or Eid.

About 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Cyrus sat pale and placid in front of a half-dozen television cameras. Her pink bundle slept cradled in her arms, wearing a yellow knit hat and swaddled in a yellow blanket embroidered with "Tampa General Hospital, 1st Baby of 2008."

"I just hope that he has a great life," she said when asked about her aspirations for Michael. "I'll give him everything I can."

Cyrus, who said she's a distant cousin of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, said it would be OK if her little boy grew up to be a country star, too - "as long as he don't sing 'I Want My Mullet Back.'"

In Pasco County, another little boy spurned his due date by 10 days to earn the title of First 2008 Baby.

Joell Anthony Morales of New Port Richey was born at 1:34 p.m. He weighs 8.8 pounds and measures 21 inches long. His parents are Christina Robles and Jose Morales, and he has a big brother, Jose III.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834 or lpeterson

@tampatrib.com.

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