THE new decade got off to a perfect start for East Renfrewshire couple Marie and Peter Rankin as they welcomed a special addition to their family.

Marie and Peter were thrilled by the arrival of baby Catherine at 4.36am on January 1.

Catherine, who weighed in at 6lb 3oz, was delivered at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital maternity unit, becoming the first baby to be born in Glasgow this decade.

She is a third child for the couple, who have two young boys, aged two and five, and live in Clarkston.

Marie, 35, who is a teacher at the Isobel Mair School, in Newton Mearns, told how the family were about to enjoy a steak pie dinner when she began having contractions. said: “She wasn’t due until January 7. I started having contractions in the afternoon and went into hospital in the evening. 

"Everything went fine. It will be a nice story to tell her when she’s older.”

The first baby to be born in Scotland in the new decade was a boy who arrived at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at 12.03am on January 1.

Weighing in at 8lb 5oz, he is the first child for proud parents Emma Allan and Cameron Cunningham, of Port Seton, East Lothian.