‘Am I dreaming?’ I thought (Picture: Natalie Austin)

As I bent over the hospital bed in agony, I heard a doctor ask, ‘Does she know?’

Then a nurse appeared beside me. 

‘You’re pregnant.’ I was sure they’d got it wrong.

But I wasn’t just pregnant either. I was in labour.

It was July 2023 and for the last six hours, I’d been suffering from cramping pains in my abdomen. They’d become so bad that my husband Robert had rushed me to hospital.

We had thought it was appendicitis but now I was being told I was having a baby. 

‘Am I dreaming?’ I thought, half-dazed with pain.

I met Robert in August 2005 and after 10 years together, we decided we wanted to have children.  

Yet, it wasn’t that simple. After trying for almost 10 years, taking fertility drugs, and being told to lose weight, tests had revealed I wasn’t ovulating every month. 

We had been entitled to four rounds of IVF because of our local NHS rules and on the third go, I’d had a chemical pregnancy – a very early miscarriage. It had been painful watching the line on each pregnancy test I did slowly disappear. 

I was put under general anaesthetic to have the balloon fitted into my stomach (Picture: Natalie Austin)

So painful, I wasn’t even sure I could go ahead with the fourth round. But we so desperately wanted a baby, I eventually relented.

Weeks later, I was getting ready for work while Robert was downstairs making a cuppa, when I decided to do a test. Positive!

Our six-week scan confirmed I had been pregnant with twins, but there was only one heartbeat. It was devastating, but knowing we still had one baby meant everything. 

The rest of the pregnancy ran smoothly, until a torturous 110-hour labour and emergency C-section. But it was worth every second to hold our baby girl, who we named Eloise.

We were the perfect little unit, and Robert and I agreed our family was complete.

Six months later, I flew to Turkey to have a gastric balloon fitted. I’d wanted it for years and now we had our family, it seemed like the perfect time.  

I was put under general anaesthetic to have the balloon fitted into my stomach, to reduce its capacity and give a feeling of fullness.

Back home, I lived on purees, high protein foods and lots of vegetables while I adjusted. 

I began suffering with nausea but put it down to my body getting used to the balloon.

It had been painful watching the line on each pregnancy test I did slowly disappear (Picture: Natalie Austin)

Robert and I had tried for almost a decade for a baby (Picture: Natalie Austin)

And it wasn’t long before the procedure was paying dividends. My excess stones were melting away.

The only thing was, I hadn’t had a period for two months. It had returned five months after having Eloise – a month before the gastric surgery – but hadn’t shown since.

I’d always had irregular periods anyway but took a pregnancy test just in case. Negative.

It was no surprise. Robert and I had tried for almost a decade for a baby, so I was hardly going to have conceived naturally now. 

‘I bet my sudden weight loss has caused my periods to stop,’ I said.

When Eloise was 10 months old, Robert and I moved house. By the time we’d shifted around all of our heavy furniture, I was exhausted. 

So we decided to treat ourselves to a pizza. After sharing it, I noticed something. 

‘Check this out,’ I said. 

I was on my hands and knees in the bathroom, throwing up in the toilet (Picture: Natalie Austin)

Robert looked at the bubbly gas moving my stomach up and down.

‘Clearly the balloon doesn’t like the pizza,’ I joked.

A week later, I woke up with cramps in my abdomen. Convinced it was finally my period, I popped some painkillers.

But they barely touched the side. And an hour and a half later, I was on my hands and knees in the bathroom, throwing up in the toilet.

They became so bad, Robert decided to drop me off at hospital, take Eloise to his parents’, then come back to be with me.

But after a urine test, I was taken to a room, and was told news I’d never in a million years dreamed of. I was having a baby. There and then.

I was still in disbelief when I was blue-lighted to another hospital and given gas and air.

‘Her contractions are two minutes apart,’ a doctor said.

A scan showed the baby was transverse and its arm was in my birth canal. So I was rushed into theatre and given a spinal anaesthetic.

I’d unknowingly been carrying this baby for more than seven months (Picture: Natalie Austin)

Moments later, the baby was delivered and put on CPAP breathing support. Soon a nurse passed me the tiny bundle. She weighed a tiny 2lbs 5oz. 

‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ I asked. ‘Are they OK?’

‘You have a little girl and she’s 30 weeks,’ the nurse said. 

I’d unknowingly been carrying this baby for more than seven months. Seven months where I’d had a tattoo covered on my leg, lifted heavy furniture, had fillers and Botox, gone under general anaesthetic – and lost two stone due to a gastric balloon.

Counting backwards, I worked out we’d conceived when Eloise was just four months old. I’d had the gastric balloon fitted while I was four weeks pregnant.

After a quick cuddle, she was whisked off to the neonatal intensive care unit and I was taken to recovery. 

A nurse phoned Robert to tell him the news. He’d missed the birth of our baby – a baby we didn’t even know we were having.

I’d had a tattoo covered on my leg, lifted heavy furniture, had fillers and Botox while pregnant (Picture: Natalie Austin)

I worked out we’d conceived when Eloise was just four months old (Picture: Natalie Austin)

Thankfully, a nurse had taken a few pictures, including one of me having my first cuddle with my new baby.

I sent the photo to Robert, and my mum, Sue: Just had a baby.

‘Is this a joke?’ Mum replied. ‘How did you not know you were pregnant?’

It was going to be a popular question. 

Slowly, looking back, everything started to make sense. My lack of periods, the nausea, the bubbly gas that was actually my baby moving… 

That evening, I was taken to NICU in a wheelchair. Gazing at her tiny body in the incubator, I instantly fell in love with my baby. 

Three days later, I returned to our home in Ash, Kent, and we chose the name Darcy. Every person we told was just as shocked as the last, but they were all so supportive. 

I instantly fell in love with my baby (Picture: Natalie Austin)

Then we had to deal with another bombshell. Darcy had Down’s syndrome.

It has been a lot to process. Being born 10 weeks early, Darcy had to spend 130 days in hospital before we could take her home. She was on oxygen to help save her energy to grow and had her heart rate and blood pressure monitored constantly.

Now Darcy is six months old and there’s just 11 months between her and Eloise. 

We couldn’t imagine life without her.

People still ask how I didn’t know I was expecting, but I’m proof cryptic pregnancies are real.

There was a time I wasn’t sure I’d ever become a mum. Now I’m a mum-of-two and aside from the shock I still feel when I see both of my girls together, I feel very blessed.

When Darcy is older, I’ll be sure to tell her how she gave us the biggest – and best – surprise of our lives.

As told to Julia Sidwell

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After a urine test, I was taken to a room, and was told news I’d never in a million years dreamed of.