A new mum says she had no idea she was pregnant until her baby arrived – while she was a size 6. Childcare worker Kayleigh Tilley was shocked when she started bleeding on Christmas Day – and it was only when she was rushed to hospital she realised she was pregnant.
Just one day before she was full of smiles as she waved goodbye to the last of the kids as their mums took them home for the festive break. It was Christmas Eve and seeing their excited little faces made her job even more rewarding.
The 24-year-old says: “One of the mums reminded me that it was almost her daughter’s birthday. ‘That’s crazy,’ I smiled. ‘I can’t imagine having a baby on Christmas Day!’”
As reported by the Mirror, Kayleigh loves her job and her colleagues, with whom she’d enjoyed a fab festive do on December 7. “I had a brilliant night out with the girls from work,” she says. “Slipping on a little black dress I had a blast, with dinner and dancing.”
In July, she’d been to Dublin for a few days with her boyfriend, charity worker Nick Jerrom, and some pals. She was then in paradise when she and Nick, 34, went to Turkey together in October and she’d indulged her adrenaline junkie whims.
She laughed: “I couldn’t wait to fly down a zip line and go white water rafting. The faster the better! I had to make sure that my life jacket was on properly. At just 5 foot 1 and a size 4-6 I’m pretty tiny.”
In November she’d been to Magaluf with the girls and spent a weekend in Amsterdam. “We visited the Ice Bar, where all the walls are frozen,” she said. “It’s so cold that it isn’t safe to stay in there for longer than 20 minutes.”
And it was exactly a year since Kayleigh, from Sidcup, had met Nick. “On Christmas Eve 2023, I was out for drinks with my best friend Selina, when she introduced us,” she says. “He was funny and kind and lived just 10 minutes from my house, where I lived with my mum Kelly and her partner.”
Within weeks they were a couple and she loved his son, Freddie, 11, from a previous relationship. “We were in love, and I knew we’d have a future together,” she reflects. She, Nick and Freddie enjoyed a festive day out at Winter Wonderland, where she says: “I was like a big kid screaming my way through all the hair-raising roller coasters and stomach-churning drops.”
Working in nurseries, she loves kids, although she wasn’t planning on having her own just yet. “I’d been in the childcare industry from the age of 18 and absolutely loved it, especially working in the baby room,” she says.
“But while I adored children and definitely wanted to be a mum one day, Nick and I didn’t talk about having a baby. I was only 24.”
She was looking forward to pulling crackers, opening presents and tucking into a festive feast after having a big curry 10 days before. She says: “When Nick and I got back home from our curry I started being sick and having body cramps. I felt so awful I had an online consultation with the doctor, who said it was probably norovirus. Thankfully it went away a few days later.”
Back to full health in time for Christmas, she says: “The plan was to stay over at Nick’s, and after waking up and opening presents we’d all go out to the pub for a roast dinner and drinks with our families.”
But on Christmas Day Kayleigh woke up in agony. “It was 11am and the second I got out of bed, I knew something was very wrong,” she says. Feeling something running down her leg, she dashed to the toilet and realised it was blood.
“At first, I thought my period must have started. I’d had an erratic cycle for years, sometimes going for months without anything.” But the bleeding persisted, getting heavier and the pain felt more like severe constipation than period cramps.
Nick interjects: “I came into the bathroom to see what was going on, as she’d been in there so long. I instantly saw that she was scared. I didn’t know what was happening, so called down to my mum Karen.”
Calling 111 for advice, Kayleigh was told if the pain got worse to call back – which it did. “At one point I was wearing three pairs of my own underwear, a pair of Nick’s boxer shorts and five pads, but I was still bleeding everywhere,” she says.
“At 2pm Nick called 111 again and 30 minutes later an ambulance arrived.” In pain and terrified, Kayleigh tried to stay calm. “With the lights flashing and the sirens wailing we rushed to the hospital,” she says.
“I managed to send Mum a very short text message telling her where I was going. Then, through the pain, I heard the paramedics say it could possibly be a very early miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy.
“I felt a flash of sadness to think I might have lost a pregnancy so early. But they didn’t seem sure of anything and, with the bleeding and the pain, I couldn’t think about it.”
Rushed into the hospital’s emergency ward, Nick was asked to stay outside as the staff began their examination. “It was a blur of people and questions and suddenly there was an ultrasound scanner on my stomach,” says Kayleigh.
“I couldn’t see the screen, but I heard the words ‘labour’ and ‘contractions’. ‘You’re having a baby today,’ someone said. Hearing that I might be having a very early miscarriage was one thing. But how could I possibly be in labour?’
“We hadn’t always used contraception, but my stomach was still absolutely flat and I hadn’t put on a pound. There’d been no morning sickness or weird cravings. My periods were irregular, but I’d had them. ‘There must be some mistake,’ I thought, because this was absolutely impossible.”
Meanwhile, Nick was still outside, panicking and with no idea what was happening. “It had been 45 endless minutes before someone called me.” he remembers. “Walking in to see Kayleigh’s white, shocked face, hearing her say ‘I’m in labour’ was unbelievable. My first thought was ‘how?’ and the second was, ‘I’ve got to tell my mum and dad!'”
Kayleig, who was rushed to a ward with Nick by her side, says: “My mind flew back to everything I’d done in the last nine months. The white-water rafting and the rollercoasters, the freezing cold ice bar in Amsterdam.
“I’m not a big drinker by any means, and if I’d known I was pregnant I wouldn’t have touched a drop. But what if the few I’d had had harmed the baby? That’s when Mum arrived, and without any build up, I just blurted out ‘I’m in labour!’ Her face frozen in shock, she replied, ‘Oh s**t,’ and then focused totally on me and what I needed.”
Medics had just explained Kayleigh would need a caesarean, when they all heard it was too late. “Someone said, ‘the baby is coming now’ and suddenly the room filled up with people,” says Kayleigh. “Through my contractions, I thought, ‘I’m supposed to be opening presents and eating turkey, not giving birth!’
“With Mum on one side and Nick on the other I pushed, and suddenly there she was, this tiny, beautiful baby. My baby. I was a mum! I felt a huge wave of relief that she was here, alive and healthy.”
For Nick, who’d been hiding his panic, her first cry was a beautiful sound. “As Kayleigh pushed, I’d been thinking, ‘is our baby going to be born alive?’ I was so worried and just had no idea what was about to happen,” he says.
“Seeing our daughter safe in Kayleigh’s arms was the best sight in the world. Just like that, we were a little family.’’
As Kayleigh cuddled her, the nurse asked if they’d thought of a name. “We both wanted it to be something Christmassy,” she says. “Nick and I looked at each other and at the exact same time we both said ‘Holly!”
But while Holly, who weighed 4lb 1oz was fine, Kayleigh was not. “Doctors estimated that Holly had been born at 34 weeks, so I’d been eight months pregnant. But I’d had preeclampsia, which had caused the early labour and a huge amount of blood loss.”
Kayleigh needed blood transfusions, drips and medication to treat problems with her kidneys and liver. “It wasn’t easy. But seeing Nick hold his first daughter, and Mum hold her first grandchild, was magical,” she says.
The news of the miracle Christmas birth quickly spread. “My dad Jason and Nick’s parents’ Karen and Ronnie arrived, and it was so funny to see everyone have the same reaction. Shock, disbelief and then love the instant they saw Holly,” she says.
“When I sent a picture of me and Holly to some work friends, one thought I’d made it using photoshop!” Luckily, friends and family rallied round and by the time Kayleigh was discharged a week later, in full health, they were fully stocked with baby stuff.
And in the weeks since Holly’s birth, the three have found their feet. Kayleigh laughs. “Every time I bump into someone new and tell them what’s happened, I can see their confusion. I still look at the photo of me at my work Christmas party and think, ‘I can’t believe she was in there!’ Holly may have been a huge surprise, but she is the ultimate Christmas gift.“
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