Santa Clara (USA) -- Bay Santa Clara County's first baby of 2003 was welcomed Wednesday with the routine offerings of flowers, food and baby booties. But next week, Seyram Kwaku Semakor will be introduced to some West African customs, too, as his elated parents, family and friends celebrate his birth with an ``outdooring ceremony,'' a traditional Ghanaian ritual held on the eighth day of an infant's life. 
Seyram doesn't know it yet, but at the event he'll taste water and a touch of alcohol to teach him an important first lesson in life: ``Sometimes bad and good can look very similar,'' his father Selasi Semakor said.
Selasi and Charity Semakor, he a network administrator for IBM and she a nurses' aide, who live in San Jose, couldn't imagine introducing their first-born child to the world any other way. Both parents were raised in the Republic of Ghana, and they look forward to the pouring of libations Wednesday, when Seyram's birth will also be announced to the spirits of his ancestors. The ancestors will then be called upon to provide him with spiritual guidance and protection for the rest of his days.
It's an auspicious start for a baby who certainly took his time getting here -- but still managed to beat Santa Clara County's second baby of the year by more than an hour.
Seyram finally decided to make his grand entrance 26 minutes after 12 -- nearly two weeks after his due date -- at Kaiser-Santa Clara hospital. Seyram, which means ``blessed one'' in Ewe, the language spoken in his father's native region of Ghana, was on his own schedule in the delivery room, too. He put his parents through nearly 14 hours of labor before he entered the world with a wonderful wail.
``He was so slow coming out,'' moaned his very tired mother. ``But after taking so long,'' she said, while gazing into his tiny, chocolate eyes, ``you are a very lucky baby.''
Throughout the Santa Clara Valley, slow was, without a doubt, the word of the day on Wednesday. Hospitals used to delivering several babies within the first few minutes of most new years couldn't believe the dearth of deliveries in the South Bay this time around.
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, which delivers 5,400 babies a year -- more than one every two hours -- didn't see its first New Year's baby until 6:42 a.m., said spokesman Matt Lash. By midday, Los Gatos Community Hospital still didn't even have a mom-to-be in labor.
``It is strange,'' said Amanda Urquhart, a spokeswoman for O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, which didn't deliver a newborn until 4:53 a.m. ``The last couple of years, the babies came a lot quicker.''
No one has to tell Seyram's parents that their 7-pound, 9-ounce son is extremely special. After all, he let out nary a cry during his first 12 hours of life, save during his birth and circumcision.
``He's really calm,'' said his 31-year-old mother.
``He gets that from me,'' said his 40-year-old father, laughing.
The San Jose couple already has high hopes and expectations for their son, who like nearly half of California's young children has a foreign-born parent.
``He definitely has to be very humble and also have some strong education,'' said his father. ``We want to instill in him the fear of God and just love for everybody.''
Wednesday was also an exciting day in the life of other Bay Area families. A 5-pound-six-ounce Santa Rosa boy became the Bay Area's first official New Year's baby. He was delivered by caesarean section at the stroke of midnight.
But workers at many South Bay hospitals said this year seemed like a baby bust compared with the New Year's baby boom that surrounded the millennium. And there doesn't seem to be as much hoopla associated with the births as there once was, either.
In past years, the lucky first baby was often treated by merchants and hospitals to a host of gifts, ranging from a free crib to a year's supply of diapers, but that tradition is slowly fading.
Three years ago, the first baby born at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View was given a stock portfolio containing shares of local companies SGI and Yahoo. Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose offered a $2,000 college scholarship for its first baby of 2000.
But in these tough economic times, most Santa Clara County hospitals said they had no plans to reward their first babies of the year with anything so special. Seyram's family received a floral display from Kaiser Permanente.
``It used to be everybody was so excited. But times have changed,'' said Sharon Brown, an administrative supervisor at Regional Medical Center San Jose.
Of course, parents whose babies are born just a few minutes earlier, before the midnight deadline on Dec. 31, at least get something -- a tax write-off from Uncle Sam for the year.
``After 12, you don't have anything for the next year -- except the baby,'' Brown said. ``I root for the tax write-off.''
