FINALLY, A BOY!

Finally, we have a son!

Mother of nine girls Sally Laycock has the Christmas present she's always wanted - a baby boy. Mrs. Laycock, 34, finally gave birth to tiny Lewis after her husband John quit his job as a chef after 20 years. After nine girls in a row, the couple had resigned themselves to being a totally female household.

But as soon as John, 37, retired after two decades in hot kitchens, delighted Mrs. Laycock fell pregnant with a boy. "I'm so excited to have a boy at last," said Sally, who has been pregnant for ten of the last 17 years.

She said that she had been told that the hot conditions in which Mr. Laycock used to work could have been to blame for the couple's failure to give birth to a boy. However, she did not believe temperature had played a part until he gave up work and she became pregnant with a boy.

Mr. Laycock, of Welwyn Garden City, Herts, said: "I had to give up my job because I had two heart attacks in the space of six months, and couldn't work. It was a hard time for us, as we're such a big family. But it's finally brought us a boy. We're all so excited."

The family of 12 are having an extra-special Christmas to celebrate, despite the worry of having another hungry mouth to feed. Family and friends are buying plenty of boys' toys as presents after years of stocking up on dolls, clothes, and make-up. Baby Lewis was born a healthy 7lb 12oz on December 9. The family are coming to terms with having a boy in the already busy household.

Mr Laycock said: "We've got a bit of planning to do because we've only got four bedrooms. Now we have a boy, it's going to be difficult. I've even started building a shed in the garden to make extra space for the older girls."

The couple cope with their brood, aged two to 17, by running a military-like operation each morning and bedtime, with the oldest girls helping the younger ones. Each week, they run up a £200 shopping bill and get through two loaves of bread just for breakfast.

John said: "I love all my girls. But now at last, there'll be a boy - so I'm not the only man in the household. The girls are all very excited at having a little brother."

This one kinda reminds me of the case my doctor friend Winnie had, where the Asian (of course :P) parents were desperate to have a baby boy, despite having had nine girls already. They finally got one, as I recall.


Woman pregnant for 110 months

The headline's a bit misleading on this one, eh?

Lesley Ware, 40, gave birth to baby daughter Millie 10 days ago - just weeks after she becoming a grandmother.

Millie weighed in at 7lb 13oz. She follows Lyndsay, Mark, 18, James, 17, Amy, 16, Daniel, 11, Thomas, 10, Katie, eight, Matthew, six, Alex, three, Ewan, two and one-year-old Drew.

Mrs. Ware lives with her husband Mark, a rooftiler, and with ten of the children in a four-bedroom home in Tiverton, Devon.

Mrs. Ware, who was born in the Scottish town of Motherwell, said there were only two months each year without a birthday in the Ware household - February and December.

"People often say they are from a big family, but are shocked when I tell them I have 12 children," she said.

Her daughter Lyndsay, 19, has just given birth to a boy called Jack.

She said: "Mum wanted a girl as she hadn't had one for ages. She is mad about babies. She couldn't put Jack down when she first saw him."

Describing life at home, Mrs. Ware said: "At meal times, the young ones go first... followed by the older children, and then Mark and me.

"Bath time is quite funny. One child is sent up for a bath and then back down, and another is sent up in turn. They form an orderly queue. And, of course, the washing machine is always on the go."

"It can be difficult getting them to go to sleep at night. It tends to be like musical chairs as they go from one bedroom to another," she added.

However, Mrs. Ware trails Sue Povey, 47, of Swindon, Wiltshire, who has 15 children.

The UK record for most children is held by Birmingham's Margaret McNaught, born in 1923, who had 22.


I was born with FEET in my BRAIN!

A NEWBORN baby has had a tumour removed from his brain – containing two tiny FEET, a little HAND, and a THIGH.

Paediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Grabb said an MRI scan showed little Sam Esquibel had a microscopic tumour. But when the US medic looked closer, he saw one perfectly formed foot and the other partially formed body parts. Sam was just three days old and otherwise healthy when he went under the knife at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dr Grabb said: "It looked like the breech delivery of a baby, coming out of the brain. To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of."

Grabb was not sure what caused the growth but said it may have been a type of congenital brain tumour. And he said tumours like this are usually less complex than a foot or hand. The growth may also have been a case of so-called "fetus in foetu" in which a twin baby begins to form within another. Such cases very rarely occur in the brain though, Grabb said.


My mom gave birth to me at age 70!

An old-age pensioner has given birth to a baby girl, at the age of 70.

Rajo Devi had her daughter on November 28 following IVF treatment at a fertility centre in India. The pensioner had gone through the menopause 20 years ago. Dr. Anurag Bishnoi of Hisar's National Fertility Centre, who gave Rajo the treatment, said both mum and child were doing well.

Dr. Bishnoi says Rajo is the world's oldest mum, despite claims a 70-year-old gran gave birth to twins via IVF in July. He said: "Adriana Iliescu, a retired university lecturer in Romania, had been the oldest woman to have given birth. She had a baby at 66 in 2006. And Maria Del, from Spain, had a child by IVF treatment at 67. Rajo is now the oldest woman to have given birth and the first woman in her seventies to do so."

The proud parents are over the moon. Rajo said: "We longed for a child all these years and now we are very happy to have one in the twilight years of our life." Doting dad 72-year-old Bala Ram, said: "The upbringing of the child is not a problem. We have a joint family as is common in rural Haryana."

The couple said they had been stigmatised for not having children for the last 55 years. Dr. Bishnoi added: "The major concern for us was that in case the woman conceived twins, she may not be able to carry them through the full term of pregnancy. In that case, all our efforts would have failed and the woman's life would have been in danger."