What a welcome for baby George

Last Sunday there was still no sign of an heir to the throne but seven days on he’s happily lying in his Moses basket at Granny Middleton’s house.

Having spent 36 hours on and off in a press pen at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, I’m now qualified to lecture on the varying types of brickwork and drainpipeage along the stretch of South Wharf Road that was all we had to look at for most of the marathon ‘Katey wait’.

Thankfully several other things stood out.

One was a blue cotton shirt.

It belonged to Prince William and he wore it when he emerged from the Lindo Wing with his wife and new son. How different from 31 years ago when Prince Charles stood on the same spot dressed in a navy suit with matching tie and a flower in his buttonhole. William’s shirt was open-necked and his rolled up sleeves suggested he was ready to tackle fatherhood head on.

He said he was the first to change the royal nappy and you could tell from the start this modern day prince will genuinely be a hands-on dad.

Kate also looked like any other new mum would. Slightly tired of course, but stylish as ever in her Jenny Packham polka dot dress. Apparently the designer’s website crashed within hours when Kate fans saw it. Her trademark lustrous locks had been tended to earlier in the afternoon by assistant stylist Amanda Cook Tucker who used to cut William and Harry’s hair when they were small.

Kate made no attempt to disguise what is quaintly called her ‘mummy bump,’ and smiled bravely to the cameras when surely she’d much rather have been lying on a sofa at home.

Somehow the young couple William with a protective arm around his wife looked very vulnerable standing there in the middle of the road making polite chit-chat with reporters.

What else struck me?

Well there was the huge cheer when the Middletons, Carole and Michael, arrived looking pleased as punch and obviously surprised to see that the crowd stretched way off down the road as far as the eye could see.

There was an even greater cheer for Prince Charles and Camilla, the first sight of royalty any of the press had had outside the hospital in the days and weeks they’d been there.

In a nice touch, groups of hospital staff were allowed to stand behind the barriers nearest to the Lindo Wing and, just before the Cambridges left, four nurses who had looked after them were given pride of place next to the door.

On Wednesday we were told the names of the new prince: George Alexander Louis. George was always a hot favourite with the bookies and would have pleased the Queen who adored her father King George VI.

Louis is one of William’s middle names, a tribute to the late Lord Mountbatten. I had expected Charles, Philip, or Michael but it is typical of William and Kate to do their own thing, picking names they obviously like rather than ones they feel obliged to pick, and also opting for three rather than the four names that has been the recent tradition.

What next for baby George? Well at some stage soon Prince William will announce his decision to either stay with Search and Rescue until 2015 or to assume full-time royal duties. If it’s the former, the Cambridges will return to their hideaway home on Anglesey which will be an ideal place to bring up their son. Then in September they are due to move into their new London home, Apartment 1a Kensington Palace which will be their official residence.

Soon after that there will be the royal christening, likely to be at Buckingham Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury officiating.

By then we’ll know the names of the godparents Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton are obvious contenders with close family friends such as Hugh van Cutsem also likely to be asked.

That will be the day we will have the first official four generations photograph with the Queen, who has been monarch since the middle of the 20th Century holding her beloved father’s namesake, our future King George VII, who could well be reigning at the dawn of the 22nd Century.