Bonnybridge baby has her family in seventh heaven

The Bonnybridge infant entered the world with all the sevens – born on the seventh day of the seventh month and weighing 7lbs 7ozs!

Proud parents Joanne Russell and Dougie Findlay felt lucky enough when they found out they were expecting after Joanne had felt mysteriously ill for many months but knew they’d really hit the jackpot when lucky signs started surrounding their little treasure’s birth.

Not only was Bobbie born on July 7 weighing 7lbs 7oz but the birth was in room seven of Forth Valley Royal’s ward seven.

Joanne later realised too that Bobbie was the seventh grandchild of her partner’s mum, Jackie Findlay.

She said: “It was after the birth it hit us how many sevens there were involved in Bobbie’s birth. We just couldn’t believe it. She was actually due on July 16 but I was induced early.

“We’ve never been the sort of people to have lucky numbers or anything like that but I think from now on we will definitely think of seven as our lucky number!”

Associate manager Joanne said she felt “extremely blessed” to have little Bobbie after a very difficult pregnancy.

“I didn’t even know I was expecting until 21 weeks. I had been feeling very ill but had previously been suffering from labyrinthitis so the doctors put it down to that. I gradually got worse though and lost a stone so had an MRI scan but the doctors still couldn’t get to the bottom of what was making me feel so ill.”

It wasn’t until Joanne collapsed on a train on her way to work one day that she found out she was expecting a baby.

“I fainted and another passenger phoned for help and I was taken by ambulance to hospital and it was there that I finally found out what was going on.

“I am 42 and Dougie is 48 and we weren’t planning on having any more children and we’d booked our wedding for this December so it really wasn’t in the plan at all! “Plus I had already taken a pregnancy test to rule that out early on which came back as negative so it definitely came as a shock but we were really happy once the news sank in.

“Unfortunately I still felt very ill for the remainder of the pregnancy so I am so glad she is here now and she is just perfect and the most content little baby you could ask for.

“We decided to call her Bobbie as we lost both our dads within the last year and they were both called Robert so we felt it would be a nice tribute in their memory.”

“It just felt right,” added doting dad Dougie, who works for Police Scotland.

Joanne said the whole family were “over the moon” with little Bobbie including her mum, Margaret, Dougie’s mum Jackie, Joanne’s daughter Sophie (10) and Dougie’s sons Ross (17) and Lewis (22).

“She’s a little treasure and will always be our lucky number seven,” she said.