SCOTLAND'S first millennium baby was welcomed into the world amid the cheers of 100,000 people and a spectacular fireworks display.
The birth of the year 2000 was follow four minutes later in Glasgow by the birth of Daniel James Gordon. Weighing 6lb 15oz, little Daniel was delivered seven hours after his
20-year-old mother arrived at Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital, Rottenrow just yards from the millennium celebrations in the city's George Square.
Speaking just an hour after their first child's birth, Joe-Ann McConville and her partner, Robert Gordon, both of Moodiesburn, Glasgow, said they were ''over the moon'' and relieved that the baby was ''fine and healthy''.
''Everybody in the family is
ecstatic. He's the first grandchild on both sides,'' said 23-year-old Mr Gordon. Asked how the proud parents would explain their son's unique millennium status, Ms McConville said: ''We will have to think about that. It probably won't come home to him until he's much older.''
But her partner joked: ''We're hardly likely to forget, when he was born at 01.01.00''
Staff at the maternity hospital, which is Glasgow's largest, were ''thrilled'' with grabbing the title of Scotland's first millennium baby.
''It was quite amazing because he was born at the height of the fireworks in George Square and we couldn't hear a thing,'' said midwife Kate Skelly who, along with colleague Yvonne Smith, helped deliver the baby.
Dundee's Ninewells Hospital missed out by a minute on having the first Scottish millennium baby. But their consolation was that the hospital had Britain's first millennium twins.
Zenna and Gary Doherty, from Letham, Angus, were celebrating the birth of a baby girl weighing 5lb 15oz at five minutes past midnight and a baby boy weighing in at 8lb 1/4oz at 29 minutes into the new century.
Mr and Mrs Doherty, who already have a three-year-old son called
Struan, said they were ''overjoyed'' at the births of their twins. They named their new daughter Jordan and their son Jay.
A spokesman for the Dundee hospital said he did not think Mr Doherty, who is an agricultural engineer, and his wife had been planning a millennium baby. He said: ''The due date they were given was January 17, but the midwife warned them at the time that they should take a couple of weeks off that because she was expecting twins.
''So, no, I don't think they were deliberately trying to have the first millennium baby.''
But the verdict on who is Britain's first millennium citizen was unclear as two hospitals claimed to have had babies on the fourth chime of Big Ben.
A girl was born to Alison Webb, 28, and Mark Heafield, 40, from Birmingham estimated by the hospital at 15 seconds into the new century.
The 7lb 2oz baby - her parents have yet to decide on a name for their
first child - was three weeks premature
but perfrectly healthy at Birmingham's Women's Hospital.
In London, another girl, named Tamera and weighing in at 8lb 15oz, was claimed to have been born at 14 seconds after midnight to a 29-year-old student nurse, Monstrat Abomide, and her partner, Jason Englefield.
Waitakere Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, claimed the millen-nium's first baby in the world. The boy was born at 12.01am (11.01am GMT) in Auckland. His parents have shunned publicity, however, asking hospital officials to shield their identity.
In the US, two sets of twins were born either side of the new millen-nium. Julie Wallman of Indianapolis gave birth, by Caesarean section, to a son, Jacob, at 11.59pm on New Year's Eve and a daughter, Jordan, at 12.01am on January 1.
In Enid, Oklahoma, Bass Baptist Medical Centre recorded Jacob Beebe's birth in the final instant of 1999, his brother Joshua's a minute later in the new millennium.
In Bethlehem, 2000 years after Jesus's birth, the dawning of the third millennium saw the birth of another little boy, Omar Ayyesh, 6lb 6oz.
Aberdeen's first millennium baby, a girl was born at 12.07am in the city's maternity hospital to parents John and Julie Beckett. Mr Beckett, 30, said Phebe weighed in at 7lb 10oz. Both her and her mother, who is 18, were doing well. He said: ''I was really chuffed. It is our first baby and this is a great way to start the New Year.''
The Highlands' first baby of 2000 was Victoria MacDonald, a first child to parents Andy and Alison, from Maryburgh, Rosshire. Little Victoria was born at 12.56am at Raigmore hospital in Inverness and weighed 9lb 3oz.
A spokeswoman for the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary said a couple at the hospital, who wished to remain anonymous, became parents to a baby girl at 12.08am.
The spokeswoman also said a woman from Guiseley, near Leeds, West Yorkshire, gave birth to a baby boy at 12.15am. Julie and Andrew O'Brien were visiting friends in the city for the millennium when Mrs O'Brien went into premature labour - a month before the due date.
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