Now we are forty

This was written as youngest daughter Frances celebrates her fortieth birthday as a note on our life at the time of her birth. I can’t believe I’m the father of a forty year old. Frances is always young looking which was the subject of some angst in her late twenties when she started to take on responsible jobs. She always felt that her colleagues sometimes wondered what this sixth former was doing in their meetings.

Quite a milestone and time to record some of the circumstances surrounding the birth of a girl baby on the 7^th of April 1978. Children had been fraught even to the extent of our GP’s locum assuring us we could not have children.  However the first born arrived in 1973 followed quickly by a second in 1974.

We had loosely talked of ideally three children in courtship days but there was no great plan. We had felt we had the trick of children by 1997. We hadn’t long moved to a slightly larger house in Church Road, Bebington( No 62? ) and we were reasonably well settled. Our eldest was set to go to Stanton Road school which was nearly opposite and only a few hundred yards away.

Pregnancy was reasonably well understood as a normal part of family life and realisation that number three was on its way did not arouse any great excitement. In fact we went about our life reasonably unchanged. Annette had sold many of the baby accessories after number two and she set about buying another set again. Things like a pram were only used briefly and it was usual to find a thriving second hand trade. We were plugged in to the “mothers circle” so short lived essentials were no problem as Annette was used to trading. We had a Moses basket from the earlier babies. Philip had been kicked into action writing his long delayed thesis from work done much earlier in the seventies. This was a painful process done in shortish stints at a camping table in front of the TV. His memory was of a singer/comedienne who had a weekly show. She was notable for being extraordinarily thin.

Annette had her pregnancy outfits from previous occasions. These included a long zip up dressing gown type garment bought by Philip during no 1 pregnancy. This wasn’t fluffy but rather a thick fabric.

Showing in weekly instalments was a TV programme on an Iron Age village reconstruction. Essentially this involved a number of families living an Iron Age life for a year. They all lived together in a reconstructed round house- something which aroused some newspaper comment. It was a fascinating series and we joked about whether Annette would see the lot before the birth.

In the event the timing was perfect. On the Thursday evening just after the final episode Annette went into labour, ambulance was called and off to Clatterbridge hospital just as planned. Philip then went to bed and, now past expectant father’s nerves, slept until the next morning, waking to the news of the birth of a baby girl.

Annette reckons it was the most painful labour of all the birth’s.; she felt never again. Up all night she was exhausted in the morning. She recalls hearing a wren singing outside the window.

It is now always alleged that the elder children were served burnt sausages at breakfast. Possibly well cooked would be a better description. These children were left with a family who lived in a road nearly opposite while Philip visited the hospital if the early afternoon..

By Saturday the children were ready to visit their mother and new sister. Philip thought it would be a lovely idea if they each carried a single daffodil when they visited. This fell slightly flat as Annette recalls two rather grubby children dashing up the ward..

Eldest child Martin was very proud of his young baby sister. On starting school he insisted that she be wheeled up to school to be shown off to Mrs Edwards ,his teacher. She duly cooed although what she really thought we don’t know. Certainly we don’t recall any sibling upsets as the new baby fitted into the family. This would be partly the careful preparation with emphasis on how fortunate the children were in their baby sister and that parental love was not reduced.