Our baby girl has arrived!

Tuesday started as another day wondering if this would be The Day. Caroline was 41weeks+2days and she was starting to wonder if this pregnancy was also going to be 2 weeks overdue, as Liam’s was. But in the late afternoon there were signs of some contractions and by the time Liam was ready for bed at eight, we were fairly sure this was going to be it. We decided it was best not to put Liam to bed and that he should go to one of our friends for the night. We called the second of the two midwives planning to attend and she came over to check the status of Caroline. When she arrived I packed Liam and his overnight bag into the car and drove him over to our friend’s house. He was very impressed with the drive in the dark and pointed out of the car window and said “night” over and over. He settled in very quickly when we arrived and was in bed before I left to drive back home. When I got back things were moving along and they had called Diane, our main midwife, and she was on her way. Diane arrived at about eleven and while she checked on Caroline, I put up the birth pool and filled it with warm water. Caroline was still unsure if she wanted to use the pool or not, but when the contractions got more intense she decided she wanted to try it. She got in the pool at about midnight and it seemed to help her find a position to deal with the contractions. It went quite quickly after that and at 00:53 a little girl was born in the pool. She had a good colour and a head of dark hair. Caroline was fantastic and both the midwife’s were impressed with her composure. We got Caroline out, cut the babies cord and let them relax together for a while. Soon they were in our bed and having a cosy cuddle. We weighed and checked the baby, 3650g and 51 cm long. The midwife’s packed up and went home after a quick photo session on the bed. Soon we were all in bed and settling in for our first night. The next day Liam came home in the morning and was pleased to see his promised new sister. He seems quite interested in her. We spent the next day trying out the names we had short listed and finally settled on Neela Louise Graham Holt.