Leanne Hartley tells her birht story: 'I just wanted to share my birth story as I found having my second baby to be a really positive experience.
I woke up at 3.30am on Saturday 3rd May 2008 to a contraction. I wasn't sure if it was a real contraction or not so I waited for another, which came at around 4am - it felt uncomfortable and took my breath away but wasn't really painful.
I woke my husband Rob at around 5am and told him I was having pains, they had increased to every 15 mins by then. We decided to get up and I thought I'd better get dressed and finish sorting out my hospital bag!
Suddenly the contractions were coming every 5 mins so I rang the birth centre at around 6am. As I'd had a quick birth first time around they told me to go in.
I called my mum to take us to the hospital and she asked if she had time to have a shower first! I convinced her that there wasn't time and we made it to the hospital for about 6.30am.
I had to leave my daughter with my sister so I was really emotional on my way to the hospital. I still thought they might send me home again and was worried that I'd wasted everyone's time because although the contractions were strong and I found it hard to breathe I didn't find them painful.
I asked for an internal to see if I was dilating but was refused one and told to just wait and see what happened.
Me and Rob had a private room in the birth centre which was brilliant, and I just read a magazine and paced about as the contractions became more frequent.
A new midwife came in to see me just before 8am as it was shift change. She tried to take my b.p. but the machine wasn't working so she had to find another, and while she was out of the room I had a sudden massive urge to push and Rob had to press the call button and get her back!
I told the midwife that I needed to push and I had to quickly take off my trousers as I hadn't even got undressed yet, thought I'd have ages to wait.
I'd had a show and was fully dilated and as I was laid on the bed being examined I started to push. I wasn't in pain but had the gas and air to bite down on!
My waters broke at 8.03am and at 8.07am my beautiful baby girl was born so gently she just seemed to slide out and she was given straight to me.
I fell in love with her instantly!
Evie Rose weighed in at 8lbs 12.5oz and I had a second degree tear which needed stitches...and the stitches were more painful than the labour and birth!
We had lots of time to bond as a family and my 1-year-old daughter Lily-Mae came in to visit us soon after the birth.
I felt so overjoyed that I had my two girls and that my labour and birth had been such a positive experience. My midwife was fantastic, so supportive. And even she couldn't believe I'd had my baby so quickly as she'd thought I was nowhere near ready to deliver when she saw me at 8am!
Rob was allowed to stay overnight with us and I tried to breastfeed but it really wasn't working so I switched to bottle-feeding and we went home on Sunday afternoon to begin our new life as a family of four.'
