Three into one does go

Then the consultant arrived and told everyone to be quiet and respect the occasion. He was a wonderfully reassuring man, who'd delivered triplets on several occasions and had picked up fantastic obstetric skills in his long career. He gave me a pep talk, telling me I was young (I was 26) and fit, and there was no reason I couldn't deliver my babies myself. His confidence in me was inspiring.

The epidural was in place just as the pains began to intensify. I had a monitor by my pillow so I could see when I was getting a contraction, and I pushed hard whenever it showed a peak. Our first daughter emerged head first at 7.15am, gave a little cough and looked surprised. She came to me for a quick cuddle before being whisked away to be checked over in Special Care.

Two safe arrivals
I wept with relief at the safe arrival of our little girl, and Ian and I quickly referred to our long list of names (for any combination of sexes) and decided she was Olivia. Then I remembered I had two more babies waiting, each in their own sac of waters (each was monitored continuously).

The second baby was head down, but lying in a slightly twisted position. As well as timely pushing on my part, it took some external manipulation and forceps in the closing stages to deliver her (the epidural was working fine and I felt no pain). Alexandra was born at 9am.

Lost in space
By this time there was a lot of space in the uterus and the third baby was drifting somewhere up near my ribcage in a breech position. I was really glad I'd had the epidural, because the doctor had to reach right into my uterus to grab her foot (still inside the sac of waters). Someone asked me if I was comfortable and I snorted and said, 'About as comfortable as you'd expect with his hand where it is now.'