How was your day?

It's not that unusual for me to be awoken by a kid crying in the morning. Our oldest 2 are past that stage now but the youngest is only 1.

This morning Rachel woke around 5am. Waayyy too early for this guy. I did what any sane person would do, stumbled through to her room, bleary eyed and grumpy, lifted her and took her into our bed (one of the reasons we have a mammoth bed is to accommodate kids comfortably on these type of occasions).

Now I should mention at this point, Sarah was 6 days overdue with our 4th child and had made no signs of making an appearance.

However, I was awoken again, at 5.30am by Sarah to tell me to move Rachel back into her own room because she was sure this baby would be happening in the next few hours.

She was right, it was within the next few hours but it was MUCH sooner than that.

When we were expecting the arrival of Rachel, Sarah and I had opted for Sarah to give birth at home. There were a few reasons for this. Sarah hates hospitals (as do I), arranging last minute child care is either awkward or expensive and finally, when we had Hannah, I think I broke the speed record for a Nissan Micra on the motorway. That wasn't a risk I wanted to take again if it could be avoided.

Naturally, we opted the same thing this time round.

Things didn't quite go to plan this time round. Sarah told me to call the hospital at just before 6am -- they told me the midwife was a half hour away and to stay on the line (thankfully they didn't put me on hold).

Sarah's contractions then kicked up a level. Lasting a minute every other minute. It was at this point I had an outer-body experience and somebody else took over. The hospital told this person there was an ambulance on its way.

There wasn't enough time for that -- baby was coming and coming soon.

The short of it meant:

I delivered a baby!

I'm sure that gives me extra man points right?

Levi Jeffery George Grant arrived at 6.20am about 22 minutes after the call to the hospital was made. The emergency ambulance eventually arrived at around 6.40(ish). Meanwhile, I'm still making sure Sarah and Levi were OK while making sure the other 3 kids were good AND getting the oldest ready for school. The paramedics left and let the midwife get on with things.

Just before 9am, Becca was ready for school, all 3 kids had been fed and watered and Sarah was being attended to by the midwife. Midwife then proceeded to tell me that there was an ambulance on the way because Sarah wasn't good. I didn't really have any time to react. I probably should have but I think I was still in a bit of a daze from y'know, delivering a baby and all!

So I dropped Becca at school (thankfully just around the corner, although I drove) got back home as Sarah was getting wheeled into the ambulance.

Levi was great through all of this -- pretty much slept the lot of it -- a Grant sure enough then :)

The midwife told that she'd call me with an update when they got to the hospital. I got Rachel down for a nap, bought Frozen on iTunes for Hannah and got some zzz. I'd been working late the night before as well so was 2.30(ish) before I got to my bed.

So delivered a baby on just a few hours sleep. For a guy that generally doesn't see 7am, I think that's good going. Sure there's things in hindsight I'd do differently but my worst nightmare became a reality and you just need to roll with it.

Thankfully Sarah is just fine but they're keeping her in just to be sure. I'm so blessed to have this amazing woman as my wife. As much as I think delivering the baby was cool, I'm pretty sure Sarah could have handled that on her own.

It won't stop me from telling this story for years mind you, not to mention the first few moments of bonding with my son that not many people get to experience.

So, that was my day, and now it's time for bed.