Gave birth in an airport!
Baby Carey was a surprise arrival in the airport!
Friday 2nd May 2008
It's Sod's law, isn't it? You look forward to going on holiday for ages, and when you get there, you end up with a dodgy tum. And now, as I raced to the loo for what felt like the hundredth time that night, I tried not to think about the big, juicy burger I'd eaten in an American-style diner the night before.
'Perhaps it wasn't cooked properly,' my boyfriend, Tom Ingwell, suggested.
'Maybe,' I groaned, from the bathroom in our apartment.
It wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind when Tom, 27, and I had booked the weekend break to Dublin, to celebrate his dad's 70th birthday. We'd flown out three days earlier, on 22 February this year, to join Tom's parents, Tony, 70, and Jane, 51, and his sister, Louisa, 25. And even though it was only a short break, we'd made the most of every minute. We'd knocked back pints of Guinness, and had one too many vodka and lemonades as we danced the night away in Dublin's famous Temple Bar area. I'd even found time to shop for souvenirs for my kids, Mitchell, 8, and Ashleith, 6, who were staying with family back home in England. I'd bought a teddy with an Ireland T-shirt on for Ashleith, and a leather football for Mitchell.
But just like every holiday, I could tell that I'd overdone it a bit on the food and drink. At 5ft and 10st, my size-12 jeans were getting a bit tight. But as I hobbled back from the loo, I tried to stay positive. Perhaps this stomach upset will make my jeans looser again, I thought. But as the hours passed, I felt terrible.
'I have really bad diarrhoea,' I croaked to Tom. 'I feel awful.'
'Right, I'll take you to the doctor,' he said, looking worried.
'No, I want to go home and see the kids,' I insisted. 'We can't miss the flight.'
So I ran a bath, and at 2am, I took a couple of paracetamol for the pain, and had a few hours' sleep. At 7am, the whole family were gathered in the kitchen, ready to leave for the airport.
'Have a couple of these, love,' said Jane, passing me a box of Imodium tablets.
I popped the pills, forced a smile and climbed into the hire car. I drifted in and out of sleep, trying not to think about needing the loo, and by the time we arrived at Dublin airport, the pain had eased off a bit.
Tom dropped us off and we walked into the airport to check in. Suddenly a gut-wrenching stomach cramp tore through me. I clenched as hard as I could. Please God, not now. I had to get to a loo fast.
'I need the toilet…' I groaned to Jane.
She and I raced into the terminal building and looked around desperately for the ladies'. I spotted a sign for the loos and dashed over, while Jane went back to help unload the car. The pains were getting worse. My heart racing, panic hit me. I'm going to have an accident, I panicked, gritting my teeth.
I threw myself into the first available cubicle. Come on, come on, I thought, as I whipped down my jeans, still trying to clench. Then, as I flopped down onto the loo, relief washed over me. Followed by a gushing sound. Blood splattered over the toilet and across the cubicle walls.
'Oh my God!' I panicked, lifting my bum off the seat to have a look.
Nothing on this earth could have prepared me for what I saw. There was a mass of blood in the toilet. But worse than that. Something was swinging between my legs. A baby's head!
My eyes nearly popped out in horror as I stared at it. But before I had time to take
it all in, I had an overwhelming urge to push. I felt a movement down below and, as I stood up, my baby slithered out, just missing the toilet bowl, and landed in my arms. It was a girl. Staring at her in complete and utter disbelief, I collapsed onto the toilet seat. I'd have thought it was all a bad dream, if it hadn't been for the little person lying there in my arms. But she was cold and silent.
All I could hear was the whirring of the hand-dryers outside.
'Please be OK,' I whispered, wrapping her up in Tom's jumper, which I'd been wearing.
I rubbed her chest, and willed her to make a sound. Suddenly, she let out a massive scream.
Relief flooded through me. But what was I going to do now? Then there was a knock on the cubicle door.
'Are you all right, Catherine?' Jane asked.
Without saying a word, I opened the door. Jane took one look at me, and her mouth actually fell open. And it was only then I realised the whole cubicle was splattered in blood. It must have looked like a crime scene. Jane stood there in stunned silence for a few seconds, then took off her coat.
'Here, use this to keep it warm,' she stammered. 'I'll get help'
Stunned, I sat there for what seemed like hours, clutching my daughter in my arms, until paramedics arrived. They cut the cord, and wrapped her in foil to keep her warm. Then they stripped off my clothes, helped me onto a stretcher and covered me in a blanket.
As they wheeled me outside, Tom was waiting.
'I can't believe it,' he grinned.
'Neither can I!' I gulped.
Tom and I had only been together 18 months. Don't get me wrong, I knew he was The One and we'd talked about having kids one day. Just not yet. But there was no time to think about that, as the baby and I were rushed to Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
There, she was put under a heat lamp and weighed.
'She's a healthy 6lb 1oz,' the nurse smiled.
'I can't believe it,' I replied, still in shock. 'I didn't even know I was pregnant.'
As I lay there in the hospital bed, my head was spinning. I just couldn't understand how I could have been pregnant without realising it. After all, I'd already had two kids. I knew what it felt like to carry them for nine months, to suffer the morning sickness and the weight gain, and feel them kicking.
But I'd had none of that. What's more, I'd been taking the Pill religiously, and hadn't put on more than a couple of pounds. With my other pregnancies, I'd put on five stone each time! OK, so I'd missed a few periods, but they'd always been irregular, so even that wasn't out of the ordinary. Later, the doctor came to see me. I thought about what I'd been doing for the past nine months and felt so guilty.
'Is she OK?' I asked. 'I've been drinking all through the pregnancy.'
'She seems absolutely fine,' he replied.
When the shock wore off, Tom and I were both over the moon with our surprise arrival.
We decided to name her Carey. And you should have seen the kids' faces when we arrived home with a baby, four days later. They'd asked us to bring them back a souvenir, but they got much more than they bargained for.
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