Shropshire Star

Meet Shropshire's first arrivals of 2020

Baby Hemingway arrived in earnest as the firstborn of the year on a busy night on the maternity ward in Telford.

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Hannah Hemingway pictured with her baby son Ewert at the Princess Royal Hospital

Ewert Gerald Hemingway arrived at 12.45am, weighing in at 7lb 7oz, to the delight of proud parents Hannah and John.

Both Hannah and John are vets from Baschurch, near Shrewsbury, and she wasn't sheepish about explaining the thinking behind their new son's unique name.

"Ewert means shepherd and my husband is a sheep vet," said Hannah. "And we picked Gerald because we just really like The Durrells."

While many will have been celebrating the bells with the clinking of champagne glasses and belting out Auld Lang Syne, Hannah was nearing the end of four hours of labour.

But she admits if she hadn't been giving birth, she and John would probably have had a night in with their border collie Arthur and cat Kiara.

She added: "I'm really happy. It feels good."

Hannah even wore her Fitbit during the birth. She laughed: "It probably showed my heart rate going up."

It wasn't a baa'd way to start the new year, and there was no pulling the wool over the eyes of another cute new arrival.

Katarzyna Jaremko pictured with her baby son at The Princess Royal Hospital

Katarzyna Jaremko proudly showed off her baby boy in his knitted woolly hat.

The 24-year-old and husband Krystian, 26, from Donnington, Telford, haven't picked a name for their son yet, who weighed in at 7lb 5oz.

Krystian said: "We didn't expect it. He was seven days early. It was a big surprise but we are very happy.

"We had people phoning up at 12am to say Happy New Year but we were about to go to hospital."

Katarzyna's contractions started at around 10pm on New Year's Eve and she was in labour for around six hours. Krystian was full of pride for his wife. "We've been together for six years, married for one. I've known her my whole life. We can from the same town. I always knew we would be together."

Baby Jaremko was born in Shropshire to Polish parents, but if he grows up to be a footballing superstar, would he play for England or Poland?

Krystian laughed: "He can choose, I support both."

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