Babies bring Christmas joy to families in Scotland

A family celebrates Christmas with the smallest new born baby in Ireland on record

Rebecca Thomas
Health Correspondent
,Pa News Reporters
Monday 25 December 2023 17:32 GMT
Comments
(NHS Lothian/PA Wire)

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Families have been given the best possible gift this Christmas, a baby, meanwhile the smallest baby in Ireland spends Christmas at home

Lauren Haddock and Jordan Hamill may have welcomed the first Christmas baby in Scotland, when their son Finley was born at 12.33 am at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

The new arrival – his parents’ first born – weighed in at 7lb 8oz.

At just 12.59am on Christmas Day, little baby Lexi was born to mum Marissa McLean, 31, and Kevin Lothian, 33, from Edinburgh.

Born 7lb 8oz, Lexi arrived at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

In St John’s Hospital in Livingston, 35-year-old Claire Gray and her partner Kyle, 36, welcomed a baby girl.

The pair, from Bathgate, West Lothian, are still deciding on a name for the little one, who was born just after 7am and weighed eight and a half pounds.

At 1.24am, Ashleigh Gillon and Dean Halup welcomed their baby boy at Forth Valley Hospital, weighing 7lb 6oz.

The pair, from Clackmannanshire, are still deciding on a name.

In St John’s Hospital in Livingston, 35-year-old Claire Gray and her partner Kyle, 36, welcomed a baby girl.

The pair, from Bathgate, West Lothian, are still deciding on a name for the little one, who was born just after 7am and weighed eight and a half pounds.

Two new parents had to skip a family Christmas celebration to bring their daughter into the world.

Maja Shearer, 27, and Jason Shearer, 28, made a dash for Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on Christmas Eve as little Eliza sought to make an appearance a few days before she was due.

The change in plans, Jason said, meant Maja’s parents – who were visiting from Poland – had to host the traditional Christmas Eve celebration without the expectant parents in their home.

“Maja’s Polish, so we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and British Christmas on Christmas Day and Maja’s folks are over just now so they had to host Christmas dinner without us last night because we’re here, and they’ll probably get a nice Christmas dinner again today,” said Jason, a planner in the oil and gas industry.

Asked what he was doing when Maja went into labour, Jason said: “Sleeping – it was 5.30am. She woke me up at 5.30am, it was all quick, then it was quite slow – 5.30am yesterday morning, in here at 7am then we were here the whole day.”

Eliza could well be the first Christmas baby in Scotland this year, arriving at 12.18am and weighing seven-and-a-half pounds.

Meanwhile, a premature baby thought to be the ‘smallest ever’ born on the island of Ireland is about to celebrate her first Christmas, in what her parents have described as a “miracle”.

Raina Gilmore weighed just 378g, less than one pound when she was born in June this year at 26 weeks.

(Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

Rachel and Marcus Gilmore, who live in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, were warned she had just a 10 per cent chance of surviving - but she finally made it home in October.

“Whenever that day actually came, I don’t even know how to explain it, it was like all our Christmases rolled into one,” the proud mum said.

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