On 6th December at 12.43pm, Maya arrived, 51cm long and weighing 3180g.

I am completely in awe of what the body can do; how something so tiny and miraculous can be created during pregnancy (I made hair! And perfect tiny fingers! Without even trying. It must have been the chips I ate) and how the body adapts after labour to make everything the baby needs and to get fairly quickly back in order so that you can look after them.

Labour was an exhausting process and not something that I’d be keen to do again! We had to be induced, which was decided after we arrived at 9am at the hospital on the 5th December. I was given three tablets throughout the day (that part was quite nice – it was a bit like being in a hotel room for the day and watching TV…) but at midnight I was told to get some sleep to prepare for the next day and my boyfriend was sent home. Obviously, half an hour after he left, my waters broke and contractions started. He spent half an hour at home and came straight back, meaning that neither of us got any sleep.

The next 13 hours were crazy – I don’t remember much because I was either asleep standing up or was out of it entirely because of painkillers. I ended up having pain medication through an IV but at one point even that wasn’t enough – I was just too exhausted – and I ended up having an epidural, which did the trick. The midwives at the hospital were absolutely amazing, especially the one who stayed with me for the last 10 hours.

I couldn’t have done it without my boyfriend; he walked me through the halls, wheeling my IV along with us, and helped me go to the loo when I was close to passing out – ‘it’s time to open your eyes now! Stay focused on me and hold my hands’ – and he kept me focused and conscious on getting through contractions and when the team needed to insert the epidural, which I was scared about. He put the oxygen mask on me during the pushing phase and he held  my hand throughout and motivated me, along with the two midwives. And then there she was! A warm little slippery body was lying on my chest and she was fiercely sucking on both of her fists.

I spent the first night in the hospital to give my boyfriend a chance to sleep that night. Thankfully, I didn’t have any injuries or need stitches so we were allowed to go home the next day. We did the next few days ‘ambulante’, meaning that I had a midwife and doctor in place to check on me at home and to do the U2, which is a check up for babies when they are a few days old.

The best thing about being at home was that first shower! Bliss.