18th November 2025 is one of them.
The day our little boy arrived.
Albie Graham.
7lb 6oz of absolute perfection.
But getting to the point where I finally held him in my arms was not quite the straightforward, peaceful water birth I had imagined.
In fact, Albie seemed to have his own ideas about how he was going to make his entrance into the world.
Monday 17th November
Labour began on Monday. I left work and headed to the local doctors surgery. I was 38 weeks pregnant and had been signed off for a stretch and sweep by my consultant, to see if we could get things moving. I was optimistic and so very positive. I knew that a stretch and sweep would most likely get things moving...
I arrived and learned that I was already 2cm dilated, the stretch and sweep had been completed and if previous experience was anything to go by... I could be in labour by that night. It was still early and I had hours left at work, so I head on back and completed my shift. Nothing obvious was happening, and I was starting to feel a little discouraged. I finished work as always at 13:30, I said 'See you tomorrow' to my collegues and clicked my badge as I checked out for the day. Little did I know... That would be it for 2025.
Graham, my husband was full of questions when I walked through the door of what or wasn't happening. I wasnt sure anything was... As the evening progressed I was pretty certain I was now starting to observe contractions. I had him order me the hottest Thai curry he could muster, a Beef and chilli dish that I immediately regretted.
The evening progressed and by 23:30 I was running a bath to hop into, I felt like the contractions were really coming now, and if my previous labours were anything to go by...We needed to be hitting the road. We made our way to Worcestershire Royal Hospital and arrived at the Meadow Birth Suites just after midnight.
I was expecting that this was probably it.
We were going to have our baby.
And, at the time, I was still imagining the birth I had hoped for: a lovely calm water birth, surrounded by the people looking after us, with plenty of time to settle into the process.
Graham organised the grandparents for my step daughter, they came along and collected her as my husband loaded up the car with my hospital bags. He had already rang Worcester with my history, and they had invited us in to be checked, just to be on the safe side.
I was un-comfortable as the familiar waves ran over my tummy. Not painful but as tight and uncomfortable as I remembered from 2020. We arrived at hospital and had to sit in the waiting room for a little while. I was pacing, unable to sit, a characteristic of labour for me. Eventually we were called into the assement room. It was here that we were assessed by the wonderful Ami, who declared that I was still only... 2cm dilated. Although I was now fully effaced, but that 2cm statistic was a kick in the teeth. I couldn't believe it.
With my previous history of quick and fast paced labours on board, they decided to keep me and my bulging waters and admit us to the Meadow Birth Suite, the worry was that they would send me home and I would go on and having baby boy off site. I was getting my ultimate wish, a dream that I had desired with Louis back in 2020.
At first, things were happening, but they weren’t exactly rushing along.
The contractions would start, build up, and then seemingly decide they weren’t quite ready yet.
They were very much start-stop. Apparantly this is pretty common in 3rd labours and deliveries...
The Meadow Birth Suite itself was beautiful.
It felt like such a special place to bring our baby into the world, and we were incredibly well cared for.
Our midwife, Ami, looked after us through the night.
But Albie wasn’t particularly interested in following the schedule.
The contractions kept stopping and starting.
Even getting into the pool didn’t quite have the effect we’d hoped for. Whenever I lay down or got into the pool, things seemed to slow down or stop altogether.
And then there was the waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
By the early hours, I was exhausted.
I’d arrived thinking I was going to have a baby fairly soon, and instead I found myself still there as the night turned into morning.
The plan was still very much a water birth, but we had to pick our timing. I couldn't just labour in it as I had with Leo back in 2011. I had to graft in this 3rd labour. I had to rock on all fours on the birthing ball, I couldn't just float around and let the contactions do their thing, they couldn't be trusted.
Ami sent me for a walk around the hospital in the early hours, I was already fed up. I wasn't used to this. We had arrived at the same sort of time as I did with Louis all those years ago, expect Albie didn't feel he needed to present himself by 1:30am. Neither of my 2 labours and deliveries had gone like this, and I was now in un-chartered territory, and I didn't like it.
Tuesday morning
Morning came, and I was still in labour.
Emily took over from Ami, as we had out laboured her shift and still did not have a baby to show for it, and we continued to wait for Albie to decide what he was actually doing. Ami had been convinced we would meet Albie before the end of her shift... We didn't.
My wonderful sister in law had joined us in the middle of the night, arriving from Yorkshire to be with us. As a midwife herself, we felt it was so valuable to have her with us. Over the hours she shared with us, we found her wealth of knowledge in-valuable, and she helped us navigate things that would have had the potential to scare us, understanding the numbers when they said they had found proteins in my urine, telling us that it was nothing and we could safely stay on the suite despite them wanting to move us.
The morning turned into afternoon, I was still in labour.
I was exhausted. I was driting in and out of conciousness, I even fell asleep on the birthing ball, only awakening as I almost tumbled to the un-forgiving floor below. With each check, I still wasnt dilated enough. I couldn't understand it.
Eventually it was decided that they could pop my waters if I so desired. I called the card, finding it ironic that they had been bulging this whole time, and they STILL had not gone on their own accord.
They popped them, and instead of dilating further, we went backwards... Who knew that was a thing? I certainly didn't.
Eventually things started progressing, but it was a big effort on my part. My arms were in bits, rocking backward and forward on the birthing ball. I moved over to the bed, I couldn't get comfortable, the pool was being re-filled ready for a hasty transfer but I was suddenly contemplating throwing myself over onto my front, unable to stay lay on my back.
Except there was one small problem.
The pool wasn’t ready.
It was being refilled.
Which, in hindsight, feels almost comical considering how quickly everything was about to change.
Because after all those hours of waiting for labour to properly get going, once Albie finally decided it was time…
He really didn’t hang around.
The long, stop-start labour suddenly became something completely different.
Everything sped up.
And the water birth I’d imagined was no longer going to happen.
There simply wasn’t time.
And then there was Albie
Auntie Georgie was there too.
Graham’s sister, my sister in-law and honourary midwife, and someone who had been part of our journey in a very special way ever since we had told her that her baby nephew was soon to be a reality.
And when the moment came, Georgie helped deliver Albie.
There is something incredibly special about knowing that someone who is your family, and loves your family was there when your baby entered the world.
After all those hours of wondering when it would happen, suddenly it was happening.
And very quickly.
The pool was still being filled.
The beautiful water birth we’d planned had been replaced by a spontaneous, incredibly quick dry-land birth.
And at 16:10 on Tuesday 18th November 2025, Albie was born.
7lb 6oz
Our boy weighed 7lb 6oz.
After all the waiting, all the stop-start contractions, all the wondering when we’d finally meet him…
There he was.
Our son.
Albie Graham
And just like that, the baby I’d carried for nine months (or just shy of) wasn’t inside me anymore.
He was here.
In the room.
Real.
Tiny.
Ours.
I think there is something almost impossible to put into words about that moment.
You spend months imagining what your baby will look like.
You wonder who they will be.
You picture holding them.
And then suddenly you’re looking at their actual face.
Not a scan.
Not a bump.
Not a name written in a notebook.
Your baby.
Not the birth I’d planned
If you’d asked me beforehand how I thought Albie would arrive, I don’t think I would have described it this way.
I’d imagined the pool.
I’d imagined having time. Just not... That much time.
I’d imagined a particular kind of birth.
Instead, Albie gave us hours of false starts, an exhausting night, a morning of waiting and then a birth that suddenly happened incredibly quickly.
But looking back, I don’t think the birth needed to be perfect. Not to say that it wasn't, it was beautiful, and when I look back I remember that it took a long time, but it was unique to him. It was amazing, I got the birthing suite, I did it with just gas and air (I even apologised to Ami about my bad personality the night before when it came out to play!). I made my lips bleed with it I enjoyed it that much. I breathed that sweet gas in even when the contactions weren't happening! I got to hold my baby, and then I got to leave with him. I got to bring him home. I got to bring him home that very night.
Ultimately, that labour was long, but it just needed to end with him.
And it did.
The Meadow Birth Suite had felt magical throughout the whole experience, and we were so well cared for by the midwives.
Ami through the night, and thankfully we took that long... Ami later discharged us with baby Albie as she came back in for the next night shift!
Emily through the morning and delivery.
And Georgie there when our little boy finally decided he was ready.
It became Albie’s first little story.
He had already demonstrated one of the characteristics that would become very familiar over the following months:
he was going to do things in his own time.
Hello, Albie
After nine months of carrying him, waiting for him and wondering who he would be, we finally got to meet my son.
And our lives changed forever.
He wasn’t a pregnancy anymore.
He wasn’t a bump.
He wasn’t a collection of scan photographs and little kicks.
He was Albie.
Born at 4:10pm on the 18th November 2025.
7lb 6oz.
Our beautiful boy.
And although his birth didn’t go exactly how I’d imagined it would, there is something quite fitting about the fact that right from the very beginning, Albie had his own plans.
The pool was ready eventually.
But Albie wasn’t waiting for it.
He had somewhere else to be.
With us.
And that was all that mattered. ❤️
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