On June 17th Dee, who at this stage was ten days overdue,woke me to tell me she thought her waters had broken. She “felt a pop” and there was leakage. She rang the midwife in the maternity hospital who asked her had she experienced any contractions.Dee told her no, and the midwife told her to relax. Dee had an appointment the next day at 11am and she should just come in a bit earlier, say about 9. The midwife said to get some sleep because she would need it the next day.It was 2:45am 

Dee came back to bed,turned off the light and we went to sleep.

For 4 minutes.

Dee woke up in some discomfort, discomfort which turned to pain, pain which turned to pain lasting about a minute, and occurring every 3 minutes. I flicked through the stages of labour booklet trying to find Dee’s stage, she had skipped all of the early stages, had gone from nothing to full on labour.After about 25 minutes Dee rang the midwife back, who told us to make her way in.

I texted my mum to let her know, as my dad was going to have to pick us up and take Grace back to their house. It was now 3:30. Now that my dad was on his way I got dressed and Dee decided to straighten her hair. I told her she didn’t need to straighten her hair and she, through gritted teeth told me she was “not going to the hospital with hair like this”.

Dee straightened her hair between contractions, I got the bags ready. Then the contractions really started to hit, Dee unable to do any more hair straightening now.Dee unable to do much of anything anymore, except breathe through them and squeeze my hand.

My dad arrived, my lovely gentle father, who loves Dee like a daughter, who adores Grace, who can’t wait for a second grandchild, who is scared of blood and utterly terrified Dee will have to give birth in his car. I get Grace out of bed and put her in the car seat and sit in beside her, Dee squeezes in beside me, kneeling in the footwell, resting her head on the seat.

My dad starts driving and I perform an intricate juggling act of breathing with Dee, while at the same time distracting Grace from the grunting moaning woman to my left. Grace was distracted by the trucks driving past and thought Dee was playing and wasn’t bothered at all.We arrived at the hospital, it was 4:40.

Dee told me her legs had gone to sleep so I sent my dad in to get a porter with a wheelchair. Dee couldn’t move, cramps had set into her legs and as she was getting out she let out a little scream which made Gracie start to scream too, she was hysterical, and I couldn’t stay to comfort her, there was no time. I hugged my dad and told him to sit in the back with her for a while and calm her down.I grabbed the bags and ran into the hospital.

I met Dee and the porter on the next floor and we were brought into a delivery room. Fiona, the midwife examined Dee, who had now convinced herself she was inventing the whole contractions thing. Fiona said it was time to have a baby. It was 4:45.

A few brief point here for those of you who haven’t been at a delivery.

• It is loud
• It is hot and sweaty (Dee’s straight hair hadn’t survived the journey)
• It is bloody
• The smell of blood is very very strong
• The smell of blood will be masked by other smells, smells never mentioned or acknowledged by anyone in the room.
• Babies come out of there fast, seriously you wouldn’t catch it on your first go. 

At 5:09am 8lbs12oz baby Aimee Rose Nicole was born. I got to cut the cord (feels like cutting overcooked squid) . 24 minutes from entering the delivery room to having a baby. If Dee’s water had broken a couple of hours later then our daughter might have been born in a car.