They say your second baby usually enters the world much faster than your first. I'd heard this so many times that it echoed around my head quite often, especially as we moved an hour away from our hospital to a regional town. "I just don't want to have a side-of-the-highway" baby' is what said as my pregnancy progressed. I said it often, but I felt confident that it wouldn't actually happen to me! Surely I'd make it to the hospital in good time, have a leisurely labour, and all would be well!

Well... When I was 39 weeks pregnant, I thought I was having contractions, to the point where I made my husband come home from work to take me to the hospital. When I arrived at emergency, I was waiting for quite a while, (clearly they weren't worried about me!). I went into an assessment room, and hopped up on the bed, only to have everything come to a grinding halt. No more 'contractions' for me, so they sent us home, saying I could be another three weeks away from giving birth! Great 😑 

A week later, it was Halloween, and I was 40+2 and feeling huge, uncomfortable, but also like I was going to be pregnant forever. I was lumbering around at home as normal, but the one difference I felt that day was a lack of appetite. After eating anything and everything all pregnancy, this was a bit odd, but I took little notice as I was sure I would have to be induced to actually meet this baby. At about 11.30pm, I woke up needing to go to the toilet. I went and thought that I felt a bit funny and had a slight period cramping feeling. But I went back to bed, writing it off as another round of Braxton Hicks. As I lay back down in bed, I felt a POP, just like a balloon had burst inside me. Suddenly there was water EVERYWHERE! They say your waters breaking isn't like in the movies, that it will be more of a trickle. Well, this was well and truly like the movies! I frantically woke my husband Jimmy and stood up, only for more water to come gushing out onto the floor! My teeth were chattering with adrenaline as I called my mum to come down to look after my son who was oblivious to all the action (thank goodness). Then I called labour assessment, who advised me to come in straight away. 

My contractions had kicked in pretty much as soon as my waters broke. As Jimmy drove down the highway at a disturbingly slow speed, I started to frantically look at my maps to see if there was a hospital closer. I just had a feeling things were happening FAST. Jimmy was convinced we had plenty of time, but about 25 minutes into the 50-minute drive, he looked at me and realised he needed to start breaking the law! As he sped down the highway, my contractions were getting closer and closer together. I could feel immense pressure in my bottom, and I knew I would either poo or have the baby (or both 🤪). We were on the city link when I told Jimmy that I was going to have the baby - like right NOW! We entered Flemington Road and sped through two or three red lights, and hoped the police weren't nearby, but we figured we had a pretty good excuse. We roared into the Emergency entrance, and Jimmy leapt out of the car, came to my side and helped me out. By this point, I felt like my world was just one huge contraction. I was drenched with sweat and could barely walk but managed to get inside, where the nurses on duty proceeded to ask us thousands of questions about covid (of course), but I could barely speak, and my bloody face mask was flipping about on my face as I panted my date of birth at them before roaring that I needed the toilet, now! Poor Jimmy was left answering the questions while I hot-footed it to the toilet, past the four or five other people waiting in triage. I entered the toilet, sat down and started doing number two, but that's when I felt something else. I remember screaming, 'It's HAPPENING' and called Jimmy's name. He rushed in, and I screamed that I could feel the head! 

He then ran back out to the desk and frantically yelled to the nurses about what was happening. It was all action from that point on. Suddenly, I was surrounded by three nurses who tried to get me to hop off the toilet. It was one of the hardest things I've done to get up off the toilet, but I did, whilst trying to wipe my bottom and apologising profusely for the 💩 situation! I braced myself against the sink, and one of the incredible nurses coached me through pushing, making sure I didn't push too quickly because that's exactly wanted to do. Suddenly I felt the head come out, and with a few more pushes, the shoulders came, followed by the rest of the body. 

We are so grateful for the nurse who literally caught our baby, as it was a pretty close call to the floor! I managed to look to see what we had had and gasped to Jimmy that we had a girl. A GIRL! It was the most surreal, amazing, terrifying, shocking moment of my entire life! I was wheeled out of the toilet in front of the audience of, I'm sure, very traumatised patients who were waiting. Then we went through the process of delivering the placenta, getting stitched up etc. 

Jimmy and I just kept looking at each other in disbelief. What just happened?! All in all, from the moment we entered the Emergency department to the moment our girl entered the world, was SIX minutes! She came into this world like a firecracker, but we wouldn't change anything. Our beautiful girl Ivy Inez Elston, born at 12.59am on November 1st 2021. How unbelievably lucky we are ❤️