Welcome grandchild No 6

I was woken up in the early hours by Margaret, who has been monitoring her WhatsApp messages all night waiting for news …

Max and Inna’s baby was born at 3.50am. We don’t know any more than that at this stage. No weight and I’m not absolutely sure of the name, although I’m running with Anya.

She has been keeping everyone waiting for just over a week and Inna had to go into hospital to try to kick-start labour on Monday (it’s Wednesday today). It’s been quite a marathon!

So, Anya becomes my sixth grandchild and Max and Inna’s first child. I’ve had one grandchild every year since 2015. Funnily enough, I’ve become more and more anxious about each one. Julia, Arthur and Aureliano presented no particular worries to me (although plenty for their parents, I'm sure).

With Saoirse there was a concern that there was some kind of foetal abnormality on a scan and they wanted to do some more tests. Sam and Lucy said no and, of course, Saoirse is absolutely fine. Florencia caused some concern with early contractions after a bumpy trip to Santo Domingo and with later scans, too. Lucy had to get a second opinion and (of course) we had the added problem of a flight from Quito to Mexico City and then a long plane journey to London. We upgraded Lucy to first class so she had a bed and, again, Florencia was fine. I was so worried that she'd arrive at 35,000ft over the north Atlantic.

Max and Inna were worried that Anya, who had been a real wriggler, had stopped moving. I think this caused also some concern for us with one or more of ours and might be that the baby is just settling down for the “big push” as it were. Anya seemed very happy where she was and in no hurry to make her entrance; the hospital was able to monitor her heartbeat but said they’d induce contractions if there was nothing by Monday, so that’s what happened.

We had some concern when there was meconium in the “waters” but she’s been checked and there’s no sign of her having ingested any into her lungs, so we can relax a little. Max is heading home for some sleep and Inna and Anya will be transferred to a smaller post-natal centre in Melton Mowbray.

I don’t know when we will be able to see or hold Anya. Leicester is in the strictest Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions and Peterborough may move from Tier 2 to 3 tomorrow. Apart from all the hazards of birth, there’s still Covid to consider. Infection rates are high (20,000 new cases and 500 deaths per day) so we have to be careful. Oddly, some people still don’t believe Covid exists. They say it’s just a regular cold, but a bit worse, and that the government is in the hands of evil scientists trying to control us. I suppose Brexit should have made it clear that there are a lot of gullible people out there but, honestly, the crass stupidity of some folk doesn’t bear thinking about.

Footnote: So I'd almost written all my Christmas cards telling friends and family about Anya, when we got a WhatsApp message from Max to say they had decided to call the baby Alice Marina (Marina after Inna's mum). Alice is a very nice name and it's good to have Marina continuing into another generation.