I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I could only remember the migraine, so Mum filled in the gaps.
On December 2, 2018, I’d said goodnight around 8pm and gone to bed.
Mum explained that I’d woken up around 10.30pm and screamed downstairs for her.
‘You said you thought your head was going to explode,’ Mum told me.
Rushing up, she’d helped me into the bathroom where I started to be sick.
Then I fell to the floor and had a seizure.
As I’d never had one before, Mum understandably began to panic and called an ambulance immediately.
The paramedics found me unresponsive and continuing to have seizures – five in total – on the bathroom floor.
‘They asked if you could be pregnant and I told them no,’ Mum said.
But as I was strapped to a stretcher, they said they really thought I could be.
‘Sure enough, when I looked at your stomach, I could see a bump,’ Mum said. ‘I was so confused as it hadn’t been there before.’
The paramedic explained that the shock of the seizures had caused the bump to appear and there was a chance I wouldn’t have even known I was pregnant.
In hospital, Mum stayed by my side, while her partner looked after my brothers and sisters – Kennedy, 12, Poppy, eight, Pia, three, and Navy, two.
Then I was put into an induced coma.
‘They told me you needed an emergency caesarean straight away as they believed the seizures were caused by pre-eclampsia and they had to get the baby out,’ Mum told me.
Shortly after 2am, a doctor announced that Mum was a grandmother.
My healthy little girl weighed 3.2 kilos.
And due to her size, doctors thought I’d probably carried her to full term despite having no idea that I was pregnant!
After she’d been cleaned up, Mum was the first to hold her.
‘I just started to cry with joy,’ she told me.
At the time, I was still in the induced coma and doctors suggested that it was best if I came around naturally because of the trauma I’d just been through.
It was another three days before I’d finally woken up.
I felt bad that I’d pushed my little girl away, but now, the nurse carefully placed her back in my arms.
Wrapped in pink, I peered down at my quiet baby.
It felt like an out of body experience.
I still didn’t understand how it was possible I hadn’t known I was expecting.
But it turned out that I had a condition called uterus didelphys. It meant I’d been born with two wombs.
The doctors had called my little girl a miracle.
Only one of the wombs had the ability to carry a baby, with only one fallopian tube to carry the egg, so my chances of conception were slim.
As one of the wombs sat farther in my back, my bub had managed to stay hidden.
I hadn’t suffered morning sickness, and I hadn’t missed a period as it had continued from the other womb.
Despite the shock, I quickly began to bond with my girl.
‘I think I’m going to call her Elodie,’ I said to Mum.
‘How beautiful,’ Mum smiled at us both.
The following day, my siblings came to the hospital, along with my older brother, Dylan, 23, to visit their niece.
‘You’re all aunts and uncles,’ I laughed.
Dylan, my best friend, gave me the biggest hug before asking to hold Elodie.
‘I can’t believe it, sis,’ he grinned, looking down at her. ‘I’m going to spoil her rotten!’
When it was time to take Elodie home, Mum told me how proud she was.
I’m learning how to be the best mum I can be and it’s all thanks to her.
Elodie’s dad doesn’t want to be involved, whichI completely understand.
I’m lucky, I already have all the support I need.
Elodie is 18 months old now and an absolute delight.
Every morning, I’m just so excited to wake up and spend another day with my precious little miracle. ●
As told to Lucy Bryant
