SCMP Monday, January 1, 2001

Family celebrates New Year with birth of baby girl
ELLEN CHAN
A baby girl born two minutes past midnight had proved to be a pleasant surprise to the Lais on New Year.
''I had just entered the Hong Kong Products Expo in Wan Chai with my family on New Year eve when I felt the labour,'' mother Lee Shuk-chi, 29, recalled.
She was rushed to an Island hospital by an ambulance and then transferred to Prince of Wales hospital.
The baby, weighing 2.84 kilograms, was expected to be born a week later. She is the third girl to the housewife mother, and lorry-driver father Lai Tung-chuen.
''It would be the best if we could have a son but her father doesn't think that's a must,'' Mrs Lai said.
Mrs Lai spent the morning surrounded by the media.
''The most special thing about this girl is she will appear on TV and newspapers tomorrow,'' she said.
''I hope she will be good and listen to mummy and daddy. I also hope her sisters will study hard in the new year.''
The baby will be given a name by her grandfather later because her mother was ''too tired to think''.