It's a Girl!!

"Right, will I just, hang round here then?" I asked her.

"No." She said, firmly.

"Okay, well, where shall I go?" I asked, with a cheery grin.

"Corridor."

"Ah. Great. Thanks then, I'll just be out there." I gestured my thumb toward the door before walking through it.

Whilst waiting outside, Sarah's parents both arrived. I quickly realised that the midwife on duty was probably not going to waive the 'two to a bed' rule and that grandparents were higher up the pecking order than me. When we eventually were let in I asked if we could just squeeze the three round the bed for five minutes.

"No." Was the emphatic answer.

"Ah. Right. I'll just linger here shall I?"

"No."

"Great. I'll just, er take myself off to the corridor then shall I?"

The stare on the woman's face said it all, and I promptly went and squatted in the chairless expanse of corridor.

When I did get to see little Monica it was just heavenly. She is so perfect and I couldn't get over how, just a few hours ago, she was curled up in the womb. She'd gone from a bump to being a real person. I could have held her, inhaling that gorgeous new baby smell all night.

I left after about five minutes then discovered that the car-park pay station did not take plastic. Then it emerged that there was no cash point in the hospital. I wasn't altogether pleased to find the nearest cash point was half a mile down the road either and considerably less amused when it started raining.

With tail between my legs I braved another run in with the midwife to ask the father (who I've met twice before) whether he could possibly lend me £2 so I could get out.

So glad I got to meet the new arrival, and actually was not really put out by the sturdy doorman of a midwife. If I were a woman in the maternity ward I'd want someone like her to guard all of us and our babies. Actually, I think Gordon Brown could do a lot worse than posting her at the gates of the channel tunnel. All she'd have to do is stare at any would-be illegal immigrants and they'd soon change their minds.