I thought it was worth capturing some details about the births of my amazing kids, while I'm around to tell them.

Katie was born at 8.25am on Thursday 5th May 1994 at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex. I was 23 and quite scared about the whole idea of giving birth. The day before she was born my waters broke in the afternoon and Ian drove me into the hospital. After an examination they said I wasn't in labour but they wanted to keep me in to prevent any possible infection setting in, so Ian and I had something to eat (I can't remember what) and then sat in the day room watching Arsenal win the European Cup Winners Cup on TV. Ian went home at about 10pm and I went to bed but couldn't sleep, and by 1am I was in labour and in agony. I called a midwife and asked her to phone Ian and get him to come back in but she told me it would be hours till anything happened and I should let the poor man sleep! She gave me some gas and air through a rubber mask but the smell of the mask made me feel nauseous and I didn't like it. I struggled on with the pain but really couldn't cope on my own, so I had an epidural and by the time Ian did arrive a few hours later I was relaxed and numb and much calmer. We sat and chatted for a while and then he went outside for a cigarette and the minute he left the room I felt the urge to push! So the room filled with midwives and someone went out to find Ian while I pushed and pushed. The epidural was wearing off so I could feel what was going on – and it hurt like buggery! Luckily Ian quickly came back and I crushed his hand and swore at him and pushed some more, and after a decision (that I took no part in) to put me in stirrups and give me an episiotomy Katie popped out, just like that. Seven and a half hours in labour, start to finish – not bad for a first birth. She was beautiful – she had the smallest little face and a wrinkled forehead much like ET's. Ian had been convinced she would be a boy, to the extent that he wouldn't even discuss girls' names with me. He was so gobsmacked to have a daughter that when the nurse asked what we were going to call her and I said Katie Louise I could have said anything really and he'd have nodded!

Katie was slightly jaundiced and had to spend her first few days in a crib under a special light. She needed plenty of fluids to flush out the bilirubin that was poisoning her blood, so she was on two-hourly feeds. I tried very hard to breastfeed her but I struggled and when the nurses offered to bottle feed her at night so I could get some rest I was only too happy to let them – so that was the end of breastfeeding for Katie! It doesn't seem to have done her any harm, and fortunately the jaundice soon cleared and we were allowed home four days after her birth.

Daniel was born at 6.06am on Wednesday 22nd October 1997 at Frimley Park Hospital, Camberley, Surrey and his birth was even quicker. I'd felt uncomfortable and off colour all through the previous day, and after trying to get to sleep I went into labour shortly after 1am. Ian was working nights at the time so I phoned him and he came home quickly. We went to the hospital via Belinda's house, as she was going to look after Katie for us. I wanted the birth to be very different this time – I was pretty sure it would be quicker this time round and I was determined not to have an epidural. I'd hired a TENS machine and for a while that really helped; this time the gas and air came with a hard plastic mouthpiece and I found it reallly effective, especially as I could bite down on the plastic when I had a contraction. Ian stayed with me all the time and did a lot of back-rubbing, which also helped. This time there was no injection, no stirrups, no episiotomy and Daniel was born quickly and relatively painlessly, five hours after the contractions started. He was an ugly little tihing – he had dark greasy hair and one eye was squeezed closed – and he was skinny too. I tried to breastfeed him and did seem to be getting somewhere, so I was released from hospital on the Friday, not much more than forty eight hours after he was born. However, over the next few weeks he was constantly hungry and lost a lot of weight and eventually, when a midwife thought to try me on a breast pump, it wasdiscovered that I had virtually no milk and was effectively starving my baby! So we switched to the bottle and Daniel instantly exploded overnight and thrived from thereon.

Daniel had a problem with his kidneys (reflux) that was detected during an ante-natal scan and he had another scan before he left hospital and came home with some antibiotics to take for the first six weeks of his life. He was scanned again after that and fortunately the kidney problem had sorted itself out – but it was obviously a big worry for me until he got the all clear.