My husband and I weren't initially planning to have a second child. Our October 2021 boy, Harry, was more high maintenance than we'd anticipated and we initially both agreed that we were "one and done"!  We lost my sister in July 2022 and a few weeks after that, both Arron and I agreed that we couldn't let Harry grow up without a sibling, now that we both knew how special a bond it is to share. We waited a few months to start trying to conceive until I had secured a promotion at work. We had thought we'd gotten a positive pregnancy test on 22 December, my sisters birthday, however it turned out to be a false positive :(

After asking my angel sister to sprinkle some baby dust, on 3 February 2023, I finally got a positive pregnancy test! I was so excited and just knew in my heart we were having a little girl. My pregnancy was so different to Harry's (think 24/7 morning sickness) and when I thought of the life growing inside of me, I just couldn't picture anything other than a girl. Sure enough, after doing the NIPT test and giving the results to our cake maker, we discovered we were having a little girl at our gender reveal. I knew in my heart that my sister had sent me this little girl to ease the pain of losing her, and give me another little best friend. 

I was very lucky to be accepted into the Birth Centre and had the most down to earth midwife (Rhiannon). I'm so glad I was able to find out about my pregnancy early and schedule my intake appointment for 10 weeks on the dot! I really think this helped me, as I'd had some concerns throughout my pregnancy with Harry and one of the frustrating aspects was bouncing between different midwives, GPs and OBs etc. I was also blessed to have a student midwife (Imogen) who was so lovely and supportive! 

Aside from solo parenting a toddler for 7 weeks while Arron was away in Europe coming to the end of my second trimester, I was very lucky that my pregnancy was straightforward. Morning sickness dropped off around 15 weeks and our baby was tracking perfectly at scans. 

My due date was 16 October, one day after my son's birthday. I gave birth to Harry at 37+2 and had in my mind that I would give birth to our little girl around a similar time...fast forward to 38+8 when I told my husband I was going to ask to be induced so there was no risk of me going into labour on Harry's second birthday. 

Baby must have heard me! At 39 weeks on the dot, I woke at 4:50amto mild back contractions. By 7am, the contractions progressed to being 5 mins apart but only lasting 30 seconds. We headed into the hospital as my labour with Harry had progressed very quickly (he was born on 3 hours and 40 minutes) and I was afraid of giving birth at home! 

Unfortunately, my cervix hadn't shortened so the midwives sent me home to continue early labour. I was disappointed as the contractions petered off at home. I felt pretty crummy and spent the morning watching Modern Family in bed - a different kind of endorphin hit as I was already someone who was super active throughout pregnancy so I needed to try something "different". 

At 1:30pm, my contractions changed drastically and immediately started coming 3-5 minutes apart and lasting for one minute. My midwife was off shift until later in the afternoon, so her buddy told me to come in and have this baby! We hit every traffic light on the way in and my poor husband had to concentrate on driving while listening to me transition in the car. I don't know how he did it. Of course, there were no car parks available at the front of the Centenary Hospital, so I had Arron drop me off so I could make my way up to the birth centre while he found a car park in the multi-story. 

I was admitted at 3:15pm and our beautiful little girl Maeve Emma was earthside at 3:50pm, after a peaceful (and quick) water birth. We gave Maeve my sisters name as her middle name, to have a special connection to her angel aunty that she didn't get to meet earth side. 

Because labour was so quick, I wasn't able to really have any pain relief. Her total birth time was listed as 2 hours and 20 minutes, starting from 1:30pm which is when they deemed me to be in active labour. I was extremely lucky to not have any tearing, and we were both healthy and happy, so we're discharged around 8pm that night. 

What do you wish you knew before birth?

That just because one baby came 'early', doesn't mean subsequent children will! 

If you could, would you do anything differently?

No, my birth was perfect! Probably because it was so quick and we were happy and healthy afterwards, nothing was 'wrong' that I felt needed to change.   

What did your partner do that really helped during labour/birth?

Look, he was just lucky to be there to be honest. The multi-story car park was a nightmare and he made it just in time for my waters to break and I immediately started pushing. Maeve was here 10 minutes later!

What advice/honest truth would give a mama-to-be about birth?

Sometimes no plan is the best plan. I'm very type A personality and purposely chose to not have any kind of set plan with both my births because I knew I would get worked up if any aspect didn't go to plan. 

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't educate yourself though about all the possibilities and different interventions, and inform your birthing partner of your hard/soft limits of what your willing to do/try in terms of birthing your baby when the time comes!