When Chloe felt sick while watching her favourite show, she realised it wasn’t just down to the stomach-turning bushtucker trial. By Chloe Waugh, 21
Watching Ant and Dec pass a plate of raw fish eyes to the latest celebrity campmate, I squirmed in disgust.
‘I don’t have the stomach for this,’ I grimaced, turning away from the TV screen and towards my boyfriend Liam.
‘Here’s a pillow,’ he laughed, as I buried my face behind it.
We were both big fans of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, but I always had to look away when the bushtucker trials came on.
I’d met Liam through mutual friends and we’d quickly fallen in love.
I was only 18 and Liam was more than a decade older, but he didn’t treat me like a little girl.
I felt like his equal.
Nine months later, I started noticing I was putting on weight.
I’d always been a size 6, so even an extra pound or two was obvious to me.
I decided to do a pregnancy test to rule it out, but I got the shock of my life.
Positive, read the test.
‘This is great news, babe,’ said Liam, who was over the moon.
So that’s where the extra weight came from, I thought as I placed my hand over my tiny bump.
After the shock faded, I was happy too.
Liam and I both had big families and we couldn’t wait to have our own. I knew he’d be an amazing daddy after seeing how lovely he was with his nieces and nephews.
Even though it was early on in our relationship, my mum Julie was so supportive.
‘Oh, love! I’m going to be a grandma!’ she shrieked as we both burst into tears.
Liam and I moved into our
own place and soon our beautiful daughter Lexie-Mai made us a family of three.
‘Let’s wait until she gets past the terrible twos before we have another one,’ Liam chuckled.
I couldn’t wait to have more kids too, but he was right.
Looking after one baby was hard enough at that point.
I’d been on the Pill when I fell pregnant, but clearly it hadn’t worked for me.
So, I went to my GP and was prescribed the mini pill instead.
I wasn’t taking any chances this time.
As the months went by, I couldn’t believe how busy life was with a newborn.
But thankfully with Mum living just around the corner, I was able to rely on her for help when I needed it.
Liam was working full time as a maintenance man for a luxury trailer company.
‘There’s my girl,’ he’d smile when he got home from work, reaching his arms out to cradle our baby.
If I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world when we first met, I wanted to tell my younger self it’d only get better.
One day, I went round to Mum’s to wrap Christmas presents with her.
Lexie-Mai was 20 months old and I couldn’t wait to give her
the latest dolls she’d been eyeing up on the TV adverts.
Sticking tape over the last one, I finally headed home in the late afternoon.
‘Bye, love, see you soon,’ Mum said as she waved me off.
Little did she know just how soon it would be.
‘Hey, babe, how was your day?’ I asked Liam as I walked through the door to find he was already home.
‘It was good but it’s better now that you’re both here,’ he smiled.
I got Lexie-Mai’s dinner ready and soon it was her bedtime.
‘Sweet dreams,’ I said as I kissed her on the forehead.
When she drifted off I went back downstairs and joined Liam on the sofa.
‘Your favourite programme’s on,’ he said.
‘I’m a Celeb? Yes!’ I replied happily.
Snuggling up with him watching the telly was the best end to a busy day.
‘Chinese for dinner?’ he asked.
‘Definitely, I’ll have chow mein,’ I replied as he dialled the local takeaway.
Minutes later, it arrived and we were chowing down in the middle of a particularly disgusting bushtucker trial, where the celebs were challenged to eat pigs’ testicles.
‘Not the best timing,’ I chuckled, feeling queasy.
All of a sudden, I felt pressure in my stomach and I rushed to the loo. Next, I had the urge to push.
That Chinese went through me quickly, I thought.
But nothing came of it, so I went back to the living room.
Sitting down, abdominal pains started to pulse through me.
‘I don’t feel well,’ I said as I clutched my stomach.
‘Maybe it’s hunger pains. Here, have some more,’ Liam said, passing me the rest of my food.
But there was no way I could stomach it and I swatted his hand away.
Walking over to the kitchen, I bent over the counter and rested my forehead against it.
The pains were getting worse.
‘It must be appendicitis,’ I groaned.
Most of my family had had it and now it must’ve been my turn.
‘Should I ring the ambulance?’ asked Liam.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied, trying to take deep breaths.
But as I cried out in pain, Liam made the decision for me.
‘My girlfriend’s in a lot of pain — she thinks it’s appendicitis,’ he told the call handler.
But they told him because it wasn’t an emergency we’d have to make our own way to hospital.
Liam paced around, not knowing what to do.
A film of sweat formed on my forehead as the pain intensified.
Then Liam picked up the phone again.
‘Hey, Julie, Chloe has got stomach pains,’ he told my mum.
After hanging up, he called
999 again, but they told him the same thing. There was nothing they could do if it wasn’t an emergency.
Minutes later, my mum burst through the door in her pyjamas.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know, it feels like contractions,’ I said, panting.
Suddenly it dawned on me.
I’d had this feeling before.
‘I’m having a baby!’ I shrieked.
‘Oh my God, ring the ambulance back,’ she called to Liam who’d gone pale.
An ambulance was on its way, but I knew there was no time.
‘The baby’s coming now!’ I screamed.
‘Get some towels, Liam!’ Mum shouted, pulling down my jeans.
Mum put the call handler on speakerphone.
‘If you feel the urge to push, then do it,’ she said.
‘Argh!’ I screamed, pushing as hard as I could.
Liam rushed in, handing Mum the towels.
‘You OK, babe?’ he asked, not knowing what to do with himself.
Mum sat between my legs, waiting in anticipation.
‘You can do it,’ she encouraged.
After one final push, Mum caught the baby.
Stripping off her dressing gown, she wrapped up the little bundle.
‘It’s a boy!’ she screamed.
We all burst into tears.
Seconds later, two paramedics came rushing in.
The baby had stopped crying.
‘Is he OK?’ I asked worriedly.
‘Let’s get him to hospital and check you both over,’ said one of the paramedics.
I was lifted on to a stretcher, my umbilical cord still attached.
‘I’ll stay and look after Lexie,’ said Liam.
As soon as we arrived, Mum cut the cord and then we waited anxiously while doctors checked my baby.
‘He’s 6lb 5oz and perfectly healthy,’ a midwife smiled as she placed him on my chest.
When Liam was allowed to visit, he looked as shocked as
I felt.
‘I still can’t get my head around it,’ he said.
‘Me neither. I didn’t even have a bump,’ I replied.
The doctor told me I was 41 weeks pregnant when I went into labour.
But I’d been wearing my skinny jeans this whole time!
It was bizarre.
But as we stared at our son sleeping in his incubator, we both fell in love.
We hadn’t planned on having another child so soon, but we were glad he was here.
Three days later, we were allowed home.
I’d been racking my brains for a name for our baby. Two days later, one finally stuck.
‘We should name him Louie-James,’ I told Liam.
James was the name of both our grandads.
‘I love it,’ he smiled.
Having a sibling overnight must’ve been strange for Lexie, but she loved him to bits.
‘Baby,’ she babbled happily as she patted her little brother on the head.
Mum loves telling anyone who’ll listen that she delivered her own grandchild.
She’s my hero.
But both times I got pregnant, I was on the Pill.
I’ve asked my GP to try a different form of contraception like the coil. But who knows, I might end up going for the surprise-baby hat-trick!