By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Melissa Rodriguez, left, of Tampa holds her 5-pound, 8-ounce girl Samantha Marilyn Rodriguez, who was born at 12:01 and 32 seconds on Saturday, making her Hillsborough County’s first 2011 baby. Dr. Susan Smith was the attending physician.
TAMPA
No one thought Melissa Rodriguez would deliver so quickly.
When she arrived with her husband, Anthony, at Tampa General Hospital on Friday, doctors figured she'd be in labor for several hours. At 10:30 p.m., the 37-year-old Tampa woman was not even considered as being in active labor.
But when doctors checked again at about 11:50 p.m., Rodriguez was fully dilated. Things started moving fast.
Less than 15 minutes later — at 12:01 a.m. Saturday to be exact — Samantha Marilyn Rodriguez was born, becoming the Tampa Bay area's first baby of 2011. She is ...