Little Jake Hirsch tried to play it cool, sleeping quietly in his mother's arms as cameras clicked and visitors cooed. But the newborn knew, his mother said with a grin. Little more than 12 hours after entering the world as Boston's first baby of 2008, Jackson Miller Hirsch knew he was in the limelight, and knew he liked it.
"He knows what's going on, don't let him fool you," quipped his mother, Danna Hirsch, 35. "He isn't doing much right now, but he's really excited. He was really rooting for himself to be the first."
Jake entered the world at 12:10 yesterday morning at 6 pounds, 10 ounces, with some dark fuzz for hair and steel-gray eyes. Delivered by cesarean section, the boy arrived a week before his due date to win the coveted bragging rights as the new year's first newborn, five minutes ahead of a child born at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"Good timing, Jake," his mother said yesterday afternoon from her bed at the maternity ward of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "That's so cool, Jake. You're famous!"
The fanfare is part of a quirky New Year's ritual in which hospitals wage a friendly competition for the honor of the first born, calling one another to determine the earliest arrival and then quickly notifying the media.
"People just love babies and love the good news," said Joyce Brennan, public information officer for Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, which boasted the state's first birth yesterday. "It's such a positive way to begin the new year."
"It's a time-honored tradition," said Jerry Berger, a spokesman at Beth Israel. "Nothing represents the start of a new year more than the first birth."
Parents do their part, too, in some cases even scheduling surgical deliveries for New Year's Eve for a chance at the distinction, which is considered good luck.
It also has its perks. In the moments after his birth, Jake was serenaded with "Auld Lang Syne" and received a standing ovation from hospital staff. It was his first, his parents said with a laugh.
"Pretty special way to start a life," said his father, Michael Hirsch, 35. Jake is the couple's first child.
The first birth in Massachusetts appeared to be Maisen Rego, born at 12:01 a.m. in Fall River. Weighing 9 pounds, 7 ounces, he is the first child of Nicole Cayer and Jeffrey Rego of Dartmouth.
Cayer was scheduled to deliver surgically Thursday, but when her water broke around 9:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, just after she had returned from picking up dinner, those plans changed. In a phone interview, Cayer said her son's arrival and the subsequent publicity had been a giddy whirlwind.
"It's pretty amazing, and kind of overwhelming," she said. "I didn't expect all this."
Cayer said Maisen has handled all the attention gracefully and seemed to have a nice way with people.
"He's been really good, hardly fussy at all," she said.
Close on his heels was Jack Shackett Auger, born at 12:04 a.m. in Newburyport to Molly and Ray Auger of Amesbury. Jack, who entered the world after 10 hours of labor, must have wanted the attention of a New Year's birth, his mother said.
"He's a showoff at a very young age," she joked.
The Hirsches moved to Cambridge from Chicago in April for Michael's new job at a staffing firm. Although Danna was originally from Boulder, Colo., and Michael grew up a Cubs fan in Chicago, the couple quickly embraced the Red Sox on their run to a World Series championship. That the title earned them a full rebate on a mattress from Jordan's Furniture as part of a promotional campaign didn't hurt.
"The Red Sox have been very good to us," Michael said.
On cue, an employee at Beth Israel handed Danna a baby hat with the logo "Official Hospital of the Boston Red Sox."
She gently pulled it onto his head, prompting a flurry of camera clicks. Jake slept blissfully on.
"The spotlight hasn't fazed him," his father said.
The couple, who met in 2004, had planned to spend New Year's at a party with friends.
"This is so much better," she said, gazing at her new son. "First baby in Boston, can you believe it? That's a lot to live up to."
