The most beautiful baby in the world (apart from the one I gave birth to almost 31 years ago) was born on December 8th in St Thomas' hospital, Westminster. It was a long, traumatic and pretty awful labour and then frantic delivery, made possible and managed brilliantly by Florence and Glenn, who are absolute stars and should be named in future honours lists, by my reckoning. These two midwives looked after my daughter, her partner, me and ultimately the baby granddaughter as if we were the only people in the world who mattered to them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Now we have the most perfect addition to our family and it has been wonderful to see how she has developed from a little red bundle of surprise and bewilderment into a person in her own right, but most of all to witness another generation of love, nurture and protectiveness unfolding before my eyes.
I saw her when she was ten minutes old! I have seen her every few days since then and everything about this baby has been a joy. Of course she has a name, but I have decided not to blog that, to keep just that little bit of her private.
It has been such great timing; the shorter days, the winter holidays, no phones ringing and all clients having their deserved rest. We have all been cocooned into semi-hybernation, which is a perfect way to spend time with a new baby. For just three weeks, we have not spoken about credit-crunch issues, property prices or other gloomy forecasts
So there it is - now we must all get back to 'normal' - whatever that is - and think about picking up energy, looking forward to new challenges (and there will be plenty of those) and welcoming 2009. I will do all this with relish and enthusiasm but it has felt good to step back, reflect and take a long look at what really matters.
Happy New Year.
See you soon,
Angie
