when i cant quite believe how incredibly blessed and fortunate I am. That I have been blessed with another beautiful baby and I want to hold onto that feeling so i can remember it in the hustle of family life that is sure to come very soon when Ben returns to work from paternity leave and im left to steer this ship on my own during the day. But for now im taking every moment to hold her, touch her soft head and thank God that she is ours. 

I woke up at about 3am on the 21st, last wednesday morning, nothing much unusual there really in the past couple of months that has been par for the course. Routine trip to the loo and then back to bed, except this time I got back into bed and had a pain that made me think 'nope lying down through this is not going to be great!' So I got up and padded about for a bit before thinking 'yep think this might be it' 

Which you would think would send me into a frenzy of activity but Poppy did this to me night after night for weeks before bothering to put in an appearance so i just thought we were off down the same road that led to me getting back into bed after about half hour and waking up the next morning pain free…

The ironic thing is that I was out on tuesday night with my buddies from work for a meal/baby shower in Liverpool at  lovely restaurant and then came home and typed out my 'people on call list' to look after the kids when we needed to go.

I woke Ben about half and hour after getting up as the pains carried on coming and were beginning to 'smart!' Once he was coherent enough we decided on phoning our friend Emma who came over to our house. A quick phone call to the Women's hospital and we set off just before 5am. 

Things seemed to slow down once we got there and I discovered from the midwife that at 4cm, things might take a little bit longer than with the others. So we stayed in the room and i paced up and down throughout, such is my preference although the midwife kept telling me i would get very tired doing that…oh..boy..was she right. But you stick with what you feel is right in labour and I just wanted to walk around and so i did. 

Sad to say we had a change of shift at 730am and another midwife took over who wasnt quite as 'nice' as the first one. Things progressed with gas and air and Ben counting down the seconds to fully dilated and then time to push. It was at this point that the words of the first midwife resounded in my ears as i hit a real wall of tiredness and felt like i couldnt carry on. A feeling which must have passed on to Matilda because my contractions slowed and i was really getting nowhere. 

I decided to jump off the bed and stand at this point as i was getting to that point where the desperation for the pain to end was greater than the feeling of tiredness. I think it gave the midwife a shock as she called for another midwife to come in. Gravity did its thing with rapid and remarkably painful speed and our little girl was born in less than 5 minutes.

She was a little bit cyanosed and congested for the first couple of hours as she was born with such speed but now looking at her she is a definate 'james' baby and has the look that they have all had at birth. She has got dark hair and long dark eyelashes so we are thinking she will be more similar in colouring to Maisie than the other two.

So we are settling into life as a family of six. Matilda (Tilly) seems to fit in fairly well and has developed a bit of a tolerance for coping with being squeezed by her older siblings, particularly her sisters. Isaac seems to be relishing the role of being big brother to all three of them which is lovely and somewhat unexpected.

I love that they are all so proud of her and want to show her off wherever we go. 

joined the family on Wednesday 21st Jan at 0836am, exactly one week early, taking us a bit by surprise. Weighing in at 7lbs 9oz. She is doing really well, getting very well loved by her brother and two delighted big sisters. More details soon. 

i took this with my iphone, i quite like the fact that the kids are in the background. I took it in the mirror in our room which you can see is nicely decorated with fingerprints and marks. Nice huh? This was about a week or so ago….

there are certain rules…

it must be on a tissue, not direct from pot. Not too old, the smell changes and only on a tissue, doesn't smell the same on other 'fabrics'

and has to be the rub not any other Vicks product. Don't know what it is, just isn't the same.

Its all about the smell….hmmmmm

Strange but true….