How James Blunt will serenade Kate as she gives birth
As baby fever rises, CATHERINE OSTLER reveals...
Prince William is taking six weeks off for the birth
Kate will have gourmet food and champagne on tap
OuTSide the private Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, a parking suspension, a line of metal barriers and a smattering of hardy pensioners bedecked in union flags are, as yet, the only signs of the momentous event about to take place there.
The duchess of cambridge may be on the brink of giving birth to a child who will be fourth in line to the throne but, in public at least, things are a tad more low-key than they were for the arrival of Prince George in July 2013.
The media have been banned from congregating outside the hospital until after 33-year-old Kate has been admitted in a bid to avoid a repeat of the ‘Great Kate Wait’ that heralded George’s birth.
intriguingly, a source says that an official announcement will be made only the day after the birth. But heaven forbid the birth of a royal baby should be a quiet affair. For despite the veneer of calm surrounding the final days of Kate’s pregnancy, the truth is that behind the scenes, plans for the birth of her second child have been drawn up with military precision.
With the first twinges of labour due any day now, the Mail has spoken to several royal sources, gaining an exclusive insight into the extraordinarily meticulous preparations that have been made as Kate nears the end of her second pregnancy.
At the heart of them — no surprise here — is matriarch extraordinaire carole Middleton, a formidable woman whose ability to multi-task apparently knows no bounds.
indeed, the Middleton clan is on red alert (or, if the rumours of the baby’s sex are correct, pink alert) this week. Kate’s brother James has returned from holiday in Los Angeles — where he has been with girlfriend donna Air and her daughter Freya — all ready to ‘Lindo hop’, as he calls his expected dash to his sister’s side in hospital.
Pippa is recently back in town after a brief trip to Geneva, where her hedge-fund manager boyfriend nico Jackson lives. As befits an aunt to royalty, she has been discreetly buying up beautiful baby clothes in non-committal colours.
As for 60-year-old carole Middleton, her bags are packed so she can be at her daughter’s side at a moment’s notice, her mobile phone is permanently on and her handbag is filled with endless ‘to do’ lists.
carole, it is said, is already ‘ the interface between the tired Kate and the rest of the world’, and it is she who will be making sure that the hospital room remains calm and controlled when the time comes.
The due date for the cambridges’ second baby is actually, says a royal source, today or tomorrow.
Kate is aiming for a natural birth, as she had with Prince George — no drugs unless absolutely necessary — and wants to be back home within 48 hours if there are no complications.
Things are slightly different on the medical team this time; Sir Marcus Setchell, whom Kate adored, has retired.
Alan Farthing, married to a doctor but once the fiancé of Jill dando, who attended the birth of Prince George, is no longer on the team for reasons unspecified. Guy ThorpeBeeston, 55, a popular, seasoned obstetrician and cambridge graduate who delivered Prince George, will be in charge.
Aside from her doctors, Kate will most probably be just with William, and her playlist for the delivery suite — ‘some classical and some ellie Goulding, James Blunt type stuff, which will relax her, and she hopes, the baby’. nothing, it seems, is being left to chance.
The nerve centre of this entire operation is, of course, the Lindo wing, the private maternity annex of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.
The same suite where George was born — two over-heated, quiet bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and sitting room, decorated in muted colours — is reserved ‘under wraps for Kate,’ says a source.
The cost? At least £15,000, even with a second child discount of 10 per cent. The wing has its own chef, manicures and champagne are on tap and it is filled with artwork by contemporary artist Julian Opie — all a far cry from the bog standard nHS ward enjoyed by most common mortals.
This being a royal baby, however, one maternity suite is not quite enough. Though Kate and William have this week moved to Kensington Palace in preparation for the birth at the Lindo, three other maternity units have been on standby for the royal delivery.
Over at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in cambridge, another delivery room was set aside in case Kate was suddenly transferred there from Anmer Hall, the country home in norfolk, where she and 32-year-old William live when they are not staying at Kensington Palace.
contingency plans were also in place at the Queen elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn and the royal Berkshire Hospital in reading, should Kate have gone into labour while visiting her parents in Bucklebury at the weekend. Staff, family and an exhausted Kate — not to mention William, who went on unpaid leave on Friday from his job as an east Anglian air ambulance pilot — are on an eve-of-war footing.
The question of who will be the first to visit is already something of a hot potato in royal circles.
After the birth of Prince George, the Middletons were the first to sweep in to visit their grandson, jumping the queue ahead of Prince charles who, according to etiquette, should have been first.
This time, too, supergranny carole intends be the first grandparent to clap eyes on the new baby — possibly with Prince George in tow.
Meanwhile, the Mail has learned, the Prince of Wales is refusing to enter into any unseemly ‘ who gets there first’ contest.
A source told me this week that he and camilla are staying at Birkhall, their private residence in the grounds of Balmoral.
instead of dashing down from Scotland to London to visit, charles has commissioned royal warrant holders Johnstons of elgin — one of the most venerable wool and cashmere firms — to be on standby to send gifts by courier.
Their knitters, i have been reliably informed, are merely waiting to hear the sex of the baby so they can ‘ cashmere’ a divine baby blanket and layette, as they did for Prince George.
neither charles nor camilla has been closely involved in preparations for the birth and will visit only when invited.
According to one friend: ‘ camilla and Kate get on very well when they see each other, but they don’t make a special effort. camilla has her own children and grandchildren, after all.’
it may be that the Prince of Wales and the duchess of cornwall will wait to visit until after Kate, William and their new baby have left hospital and returned to Kensington Palace, where a neutrally decorated nursery described as ‘ so pale it’s impractical’ awaits.
William will take six weeks’ leave — a combination of paternity leave and unpaid leave — from his air ambulance job in east Anglia.
A royal spokesman announced the second in line to the throne had completed the latest stage of his training as a pilot with east Anglia Air Ambulance ‘ earlier than expected’ and would not be required to embark on the final stage until June 1.
After a brief stay in London, the cambridges, the Middletons, not to
mention a maternity nurse who has been hired to help with the newborn baby, will move en masse to Anmer Hall, where a second, more exuberant nursery awaits.
It is this lovingly prepared haven that may provide the best clue to the sex of the baby — widely expected to be a girl by the public, and tipped by many to be called Alice. Others have suggested Charlotte, Alexandra or Victoria. Meanwhile, Arthur or Albert are possibilities for a boy.
As the Mail recently revealed, Annie Sloan, an Oxford interior design company, has sent three shades of pink chalk paint (a matt, velvety paint that goes on top of anything) samples to Anmer Hall: Henrietta, bright pink with lilac in it; Antoinette, ‘oldfashioned roses’; and the aubergine hued Emile. All would suggest preparations for a tiny Princess.
By all accounts, Anmer Hall is ‘more colourful, bolder, country tactile but grand’ than the Cambridges’ neutrally decorated Kensington Palace apartment and will be the place where the new baby spends its first few months of life. Carole has found samples for Kate from Little Sanderson’s Abracazoo wallpaper range: owls, squirrels and mice in the woodland- themed Going Batty pattern and the quirky cartoon Dogs in Clogs motif. Both patterns come in colours suitable for a girl or a boy.
William and Kate claim they don’t know the sex of the baby, but friends are deeply sceptical about this.
‘They definitely knew last time round because another young royal expectant mother was told that if she had a son she couldn’t call him George,’ says a source. Whatever the sex of the second child, William and Kate have decided to hire the same, highly qualified night nurse they engaged for Prince George.
They didn’t broadcast the fact that they hired her (night nurses are notoriously expensive and a topleague one can cost £1,000 a week) as there had been a lot of talk about being low key and not relying on staff.
But according to a source: ‘Down in Bucklebury where the Prince and the Cambridges had taken up residence with round-the-clock royal protection, Kate was on her knees with exhaustion as George hardly slept at all.
‘Carole needed her sleep and even the Spanish Norland Nanny, Maria Borrallo, found it all rather taxing when she first joined, though she now will ensure George has a smooth routine while the baby is small.’
Safely tucked away at Anmer Hall with all the support that any mother with a toddler and a newborn could require, Kate’s every maternal whim will be met.
‘Absolutely everything — creams, clothes, nappies, food — will be as organic and as natural as possible and free of parabens,’ (synthetic ingredients believed to aggravate a baby’s skin) says a source.
She believes ‘music played in the womb and afterwards will make a child more intelligent’ and there are educational, stimulating musical mobiles and tasteful wooden toys. A reformed smoker, Kate not only doesn’t allow smoking anywhere near the children, but anyone who smells of smoke will be quickly dispatched, too. Then there will be the exquisitely tasteful gifts presented by members of the Middleton family, though they have been banned from their favourite baby shops in Chelsea in case someone gives away the baby’s sex by buying a gender-identifying garment without thinking.
If the new royal baby is a girl, its wardrobe will undoubtedly become as copied as Kate’s.
Prince George’s wardrobe has already become a shopping template for mothers everywhere from the moment he appeared to the world in his mother’s arms, wrapped in an Aden & Anais organic muslin, which then sold out in minutes.
Speaking of George, the adorable 21-month-old Prince is perhaps the only member of the family to be oblivious about the monumental event that’s about to take place.
According to the source who spoke to the Mail, he is ‘used to being the total centre of attention and may not know what has hit him when the fuss gravitates elsewhere’.
But despite the possibility of sibling rivalry, George undoubtedly has an idyllic summer ahead of him, with a fully staffed country house in Norfolk, complete with swimming in the pool, frolics with the family dog, Lupo, and hours of play with endless toys.
With a doting aunt and two uncles, not to mention two sets of attentive grandparents, it seems likely that the future monarch will manage to overcome the indignity of sharing his regal playroom with another royal baby.
Granny Carole is determined to get there first