7lbs 1oz, since you ask

She's here! The most delightful baby imaginable.

Lady P

She arrived late on Saturday, and I'd love to tell you about the labour and birth in graphic detail. I could also fill you in on her temperament, her long legs, and whether she is hairy or not (she is). And I'd be happy to share the details of our care in hospital, how that birth plan worked out for us, and whether my pedicure survived (it didn't).

But I know what you're going to ask. It's the first thing everyone wants to know: 'What does she weigh?'

It's a strange question, really. I mean, assuming she's not massively premature or hugely oversized. She's a baby. She weighs something between 6lbs and 8lbs. You know, the kind of thing babies usually weigh. The details are irrelevant. If someone says to you 'I met this great guy', you don't immediately ask 'how much does he weigh?' Nor, on finding out you are going to have a new boss, do you ask 'how many stone?' So what's with the baby weight obsession?


Unfortunately for our interested family and friends, TLOML and I are not big birth weight watchers. And the Whittington  Birth Centre vibe is all about letting you take your time, after delivery, to marvel in your new baby and bond as a family. So they didn't weigh her for at least an hour after she was born. Meanwhile we used that special bonding time, obviously, to call our mums and text our nearest and dearest. (I would like to point out I did restrain from tweeting at least.) Everyone we told asked us the same thing.

'What does she weigh?'

We didn't know. We knew she was alert yet chilled out, incredibly beautiful, and had great big feet. We were immediately certain of her future as an Olympic gold medal-winning swimming supermodel. But we did not know her weight.

Well, we do now. Our lovely little Lady P was 7lbs 1oz at birth. A fact we have now started to include in all birth-related communications.

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PS We're calling her Lady P because she has a certain elegance that suggests an aristocratic bearing. Again, something else we could have told you long before we knew her weight.