When pregnant reporter Jacqui Carrol felt a rumble in her stomach at the office Christmas party, her colleagues thought she had just eaten too much turkey.

Little did they know that within a few hours she would give birth to a bouncing baby girl – three weeks earlier than planned.

Elisha Perri Carrol made her surprise entrance into the world at 4.48am on Friday, December 17, at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.

Mum Jacqui, a reporter on the Chepstow and Caldicot Free Press in south Wales, said: “I had been booked into the Heath in Cardiff for a Caesarean on December 29 and the pregnancy had been going really well.

“I was enjoying my last night out before the baby was born and I certainly did not expect to have her that night.

“I am always being accused of being a bit dramatic and my colleagues didn’t believe me when I told them I thought my waters had broken.”

Jacqui, (35), had tucked into a three-course Christmas dinner at the traditional ‘Weird Women Christmas bash’ for 23 editorial staff from the Argus and Free Press.

She had been enjoying a chat in the bar when she felt her waters break. Jacqui’s colleagues first thought her stomach pains were due to indigestion. But as her discomfort increased and Jacqui became more emotional, panic set in.

A mad dash to the hospital then ensued, where staff swiftly admitted her to the maternity ward and arranged a Caesarean section. Little Elisha weighed in at a healthy 5lb 13oz and both mum and baby returned home to Undy three days later.

Proud dad Mel, sisters Keilah, (12), and N’kiah, (16 months) and brother Elijah, (five), are all thrilled with the arrival of a new baby just in time for Christmas.

One of the women at the party, Nicole Garnon, assistant editor of the South Wales Argus, said: “”We were awful really. Most of us were a bit tipsy by the time Jacqui was saying she thought her waters had broken, so we just carried on with the teasing.

“This Christmas meal is always nicknamed the ‘weird women’s night out.’ It certainly lived up to its billing this year!”

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