Birth story - Becca and baby girl

From 38 weeks, when I had my first sweep, we'd thought I was good to go any day but baby girl made us wait until 41 weeks.

The day before, from around 4pm, I was having mild cramps - but I had been having these on and off for 3 weeks so I didn't think anything of it. I went to bed as normal, watched love island and went to sleep as I was booked in for an induction in the afternoon on the 18th.

I woke up at 1am with intense cramps that I couldn't sleep through. So I took some paracetamol and went downstairs to sit on my birth ball. They were 10 minutes apart but not the first time I'd had them this pregnancy so waited to see what happened before calling the birth center (previous fast labour so I was told to call as soon as I knew).

At 2am they were a bit all over the place - 4 minutes then 7 minutes then 5 minutes so I just said they were 6 minutes apart but intense. I was told to have a bath and wait it out. I called my mum to come over as I felt like this was the real deal and didn't want to have to wait for her to get here to take my first child back to hers. I never got round to having a bath but I did go to the toilet and there was blood so I rang back at 2.30am and they said come in.

We left the house at 2.46am (roughly 20/25 minute drive) to go to hospital. On the way it got very intense and I told my husband I felt l Iike I was pushing. He dropped me off at the doors and I made my way to the birth center. We went to the assessment room and I had 2 contractions and the nurse decided we needed a labour room immediately rather than doing any assessments. We made our way to the labour suite and they asked if I needed a wee so I went and could feel myself pushing again.

I managed to get up and get to the bed which they put the back up for me to lean over. The consultant came in and asked if I wanted to deliver in the pool to which I said I didn't think there was time. My care plan required me to have tranexamic acid in labour and also antibiotics for gbs. They put the cannula in before my midwife announced we would have a baby in 5 minutes. After a couple of pushes she was here at 3.21am! 35 minutes before I had been at home!

We had to be monitored for 12 hours because of not getting antibiotics but we had lovely skin to skin after and a huge 2 hour feed whilst I was on a drip for the tranexamic acid. She also did the biggest poo ever on me and all over the towel that was on top of her.

We are so in love with her and our first is slowly adjusting to being a big brother.