Clara was born at 3:30pm 5/11/2014 at home.

I was 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant and feeling very impatient due to having thought I was in labour at 36 weeks and having been told that the baby would likely arrive any day but she didn’t.

I asked for a sweep, I had wanted one sooner but what with my husband’s final university exam and an awful tummy bug striking our household there just hadn’t been the right time until Guy Fawkes Day. I had the sweep at 11am and the midwife advised me that I may still need a second one in 48 hours, so home I went and my husband went to work to wrap things up since he was due to go on parental leave. He works an hour away so my Mum had agreed to come and spend the afternoon  with me and my 2 year old son Luke-just in case!

While Luke slept I had a few niggles, but since the false alarm at 36 weeks and all the twinges since then I really didn’t register that anything could be happening. I lay down on the couch on my side to try and get the baby to shift over as the midwife had suggested would help. Luke got up from his nap and my mum arrived at about 2:30pm. I popped the jug on and went and go the washing off the line and then made us a cup of tea. I sat down with my cuppa and then had a good strong sharp pain so I got on my hand and knees and breathed through it. I had another one a few minutes later so thought I best check in with the midwife, she said the next 20 minutes would be a good indication of what was happening and she wasn’t wrong!

Very quickly things started to progress. I rang the midwife and she said she would be with me within 20 minutes to take me to our local birthing unit. I went to the toilet as it felt like the safest place to be. My waters suddenly broke and I called to my Mum to get towels and call an ambulance.

I remembered from giving birth the first time round how to pant through the urge to push, which was so strong at this stage but I didn’t have a hope of keeping this baby in for any longer. I reached down and felt her head and yelled for my amazing mum, who burst through the doors, towels in hand and on the phone trying to get an ambulance. With my son’s birth he had got slightly stuck so I knew the crucial moment would be waiting for her shoulders to come out. I took a deep breath and told Mum we had to wait… well we didn’t for long! She shot straight out!

I sent my mum off to be with my son and wait for the ambulance as I stood in the doorway just staring at my baby girl! I quickly rang the midwife to tell her she’d arrived too.

I don’t think I could find the words to describe all of what I felt in those first few moments-shock, awe and amazement would be a good start! It’s funny the things that go through your head, I didn’t want to leave the toilet and make a mess on the carpet, I wondered how Luke was and had hoped all my yelling for Mum hadn’t upset him and then my husband-he’s missed the birth but was on his way home but with no idea what he was about to arrive home and find.

My awesome midwife arrived at the same time as the ambulance. I was so relieved to see her and have her confirm that everyone was ok! She had delivered my son and although she wasn’t quite there in time for my daughter she had prepared me well and I felt like I knew what to do when the time came. We didn’t need the ambulance but they kindly turned the lights on for Luke because an ambulance with flashing lights is pretty cool!

My mum offered to take Luke to her house for a couple of hours, so they left and I lay on my couch with my midwife joking that I birth quite well and I really should think about #3?! My phone started to ring and it was my husband, it was probably the funniest phone call we’ve ever had and I don’t think I managed to say much more than “She’s here!” a lot! The rest of the afternoon was just lovely, just taking it all in from the comfort of the couch! Luke came home in time for milk and a story before bed, just like any other day except for the fact that he was now a proud big brother and we were a very content family of four!

Congrats Michelle from the entire BSC team!