PERFECT GIFT: Proud parents Charlie and Verity Terry pose with daughter Jemima Ophelia Rose, who was born at 11.53pm on Christmas Day. The couple had enjoyed Christmas lunch with Mr Terry’s parents before his wife went into labour in the evening
PERFECT GIFT: Proud parents Charlie and Verity Terry pose with daughter Jemima Ophelia Rose, who was born at 11.53pm on Christmas Day. The couple had enjoyed Christmas lunch with Mr Terry’s parents before his wife went into labour in the evening

WHEN pregnant Verity Terry woke up on Christmas Day morning, she realised something “felt a bit different” but decided to keep it to herself.

After enjoying lunch with husband Charlie and his parents, Mrs Terry, 31, realised “this was the real thing” at about 4.30pm.

The Barnard Castle couple arrived at the maternity unit at about 9pm and little Jemima Ophelia Rose was born at 11.53pm on Christmas Day, weighing in at a healthy 8lb 3oz.

She had been due on Boxing Day, so it was no real surprise when she came seven minutes early.

“We had been joking the whole time because of when she was due,” said Mrs Terry, who was back home on Boxing Day morning.

“Everyone was saying she would arrive in the middle of dinner, but she hung on until after lunch.

“When I woke up on Christmas morning I thought it felt a bit different. We rang the assessment unit at about 7pm and they said we had better come in.”

Mr Terry, 32, a pilot, was alongside his wife when Jemima was born.

Mrs Terry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 19 and during her pregnancy received support from the MS team at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, and her MS nurse.