Spence couple Esther Crothers and Ash Taylor are the definition of chilled.
They welcomed their first child together in a dramatic unplanned birth at home on Wednesday, which saw Esther give birth to their daughter Heidi on the toilet, and Ash's rugby skills come into play as he caught their newborn.
"Lucky I played footy all those years, catching a slippery ball - it was good practice," he said, with a laugh.
Esther, 32, the manager of the student centre at the University of Canberra, and Ash, 30, who works in IT, had planned to have a water birth at Calvary Hospital. "But she had other plans," Esther said, with a laugh.
Despite some warning signs, no one expected Heidi to make such a dramatic entrance to the world.
"I had some contractions around 2am and I thought my waters had broken and it was a little bit yellow, so the midwives told me to come straight in when I rang them at 9am," Esther said.
"And they checked and my waters hadn't broken, so they sent me home at 1pm. I had a scan already booked for 2.30pm, so I went back to the hospital at 2.30pm for the scan and was still having contractions, but nothing regular.
"We got home at about 3.30pm and I had a shower and thought, 'I'm going to have a nap because this is going to be a long day'. And had a shower and didn't even have time to get dressed. I had two really bad contractions and pushed twice and we had a baby on the toilet.
"Ash caught her and we called an ambulance. Waited for the ambulance. Went to hospital, we were in hospital for four hours just to check us both over but we were both perfectly fine. No meds. No injuries. No tearing. No anything. It was just like a dream birth.
"So, yeah, they sent us home after four hours and we're at home and we're having the best time. We had a dream night last night and she's feeding perfectly. It hasn't been as hard as I was expecting it to be."
Heidi was born at 4.10pm on Wednesday, bang on her initial due date, August 18, although a later date was given as August 22.
Both parents were happy and relieved, lockdown giving them time to enjoy being in the baby love bubble.
"Initially, I think I was in shock but Ash and I are both really relaxed, chilled people and I think we just kind of embraced it and took it as it happened," Esther said.
"We've had such a huge year. We got engaged and we just bought a house and so it's been a massive year and in true Esther and Ash form, Heidi decided to arrive quickly as well."
Ash has a four-year-old son Leo, from a previous relationship, who is very happy to have a little sister.
"He's infatuated with her and very excited to be a big brother. Leo came over to meet her yesterday and the four of us just had time to spend, just getting to know each other," Esther said.
Heidi's middle name is Celeste, for Esther's mum, who lives in Byron Bay and can't wait to meet her grand-daughter.
"She got half-way here the day they announced the Byron Bay lockdown so she had to turn around, so she was pretty devastated to miss it," Esther said.
"My dad is in Sydney. Ash's dad and step-mum are here and his mum is in Batemans Bay. We're pretty fortunate with technology that they've all sort of met her virtually."
And Ash was simply in awe of Esther.
"It's pretty amazing that you can give birth like that and live to tell the tale I guess," he said.
"Both mum and baby are healthy and it's amazing."
