Lily Anne Sutera may have arrived a little late, but she sure knew how to make an entrance.

After attempting entry into the world since early New Year's Eve, baby Lily finally arrived at 1:42 a.m. New Year's Day at Beverly Hospital, becoming the first child born from Cape Ann.

With a Dec. 30 due date, mom Kristen Porper, 27, and dad John Sutera, 33, of Gloucester, knew a New Year's birth was a possibility, but neither thought it would actually happen.

"Everyone said throughout the pregnancy she'd be born on New Year's," Porper said, "but I didn't think I would have the New Year's baby."

In fact, Lily almost missed out on the title, as Porper's physician, Dr. Katrina Sanders, performed a Caesarian section delivery around 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 31.

As Beverly Hospital's first newborn of 2009, the Babies 'R' Us store of Peabody presented the family with a complimentary gift bag full of baby essentials, including thermometers, clothing, and lotions.

The 8-pound, 19.5-inch girl is the couple's second child; their first daughter, Katie, 3, was also born in Beverly and so far loves being an older sister.

"She loves it, she's a little helper," said the proud stay-at-home mom. "In the first five minutes she got nervous and upset when the baby cried, but now she's great."

Porper joked she was thankful Lily was her second child, because had her first childbirth experience been as challenging, she's not sure she would've had another baby.

"My first daughter was the easiest delivery, everything was perfect," she said. "This time the epidermal didn't take so it was very painful. It was a long, miserable labor, but it was all worth it, she's beautiful."

Sutera, a stonemason, drove his wife to the hospital at 9 a.m. Dec. 31 when she began experiencing labor pains.

Yesterday afternoon, the infant drifted in and out of sleep while being held by her mother in room 516 of the hospital. The baby, jaundiced at birth, has been kept in the pediatric unit for observation for more than a week. Porper was discharged after spending three days in the hospital.

The family should be able to go home in a few more days — and, according to dad, it won't be a moment too soon.

"Believe me, we can't wait," Sutera said.

Porper said last night she was not sure if Lily would hold the honor of being Mistress Gloucester, a title traditionally given to the first Gloucester girl born in the new year.

The tradition of honoring Cape Ann's New Year's babies began in 1963 when local philanthropist Roger Babson started a fund for the first baby born at Addison Gilbert Hospital each year. In 1979, the tradition was expanded to include Mistress Gloucester for the first baby girl. An award of $25 was traditionally given to the year's first born boy and girl of Gloucester and Rockport couples even after the closure of the maternity services at Addison Gilbert Hospital, which were transferred to Beverly Hospital when the two hospitals merged in the mid-1990s.

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.

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