More joy for Christmas parents

CHRISTMAS presents come in all shapes and sizes – as the proud parents of

these little bundles of joy will testify.

Staff at the Maternity Unit at Ipswich Hospital were kept busy on Christmas

Day with a number of births from couples across East Anglia.

There was double joy for one couple who come from Buntingford, near Royston in Hertfordshire.

Lindsey Ricketts, 29 and husband Andrew, 33 had expected to have their twins

closer to home but on Christmas Eve they suddenly had to come to Ipswich.

Andrew said it felt like a familiar story: "It was like the nativity story –

we were looking for room at an inn and that inn happened to be in Ipswich!"

Lindsey gave birth to Aaron Samuel at 11.36am who weighed in at 6lb 11oz and one minute later to Eloise Frances who weighed 6lb 13oz.

Just an hour after the Queen's speech finished on the television,

19-year-old Becky Henson gave birth to her first child, Sky.

Sky was born at 4.16pm and weighed 7lb 8oz and was actually due the day

before Twelfth Night, but she came along on the first day of Christmas and

was today spending her first day at home with her new mum and dad at Middleton, near Saxmundham.

Ipswich Hospital was, as on any ordinary day, ready to accept cases from

across the region and one of those was a special delivery all the way from

Norfolk.

Victoria Middleditch, 17, and partner Steven Bird, 21, from Costessey,

Norwich, were rushed to Ipswich on Christmas Day as Victoria gave birth to

their son Harvey at 8.41pm.

Harvey was born three-and-a-half months premature and weighs just 2lb and

will spend as much as three months in intensive care.

Norwich City fan Steven joked that he didn't want his son to be born in

Ipswich – but the couple paid tribute to the fine work of the intensive care

unit, who are currently looking after 14 babies.