Billie Shepherd may have previous experience of giving birth but, as she prepared for the arrival of her third child, she was keen to follow in the footsteps of her younger sister Sam Faiers and have a water birth.

However, birth plans don’t always work out – as Billie discovered when she had Margot in December.

When we catch up with the cheerful, albeit exhausted 33-year-old, she tells us Margot’s birth was the most “stressful” one she’s had because at one point she thought she might end up having an emergency C-section.

“I’ve never had a C-section,” Billie tells OK!. “I wanted to have a similar birth to what I did with the other two, though this time I was thinking about a water birth. Then on the flipside, it’s like I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get the baby here safely.”

Alongside her husband Greg, 37, Billie decided to document the arrival of their third child in a one-off special of their Family Diaries show. And viewers are in for quite the ride if Billie’s description of the birth is anything to go by.

“The first 24 hours after my waters broke, I stayed at home but then because I didn’t start contracting, I had to go into hospital,” she says. “They put me on a labour ward and then Greg had to go home [because of hospital rules].”

With no sign of contractions, Billie was then induced and eventually, on day three of her labour, she was sent to a birthing suite where she was put on an oxytocin drip.

“Because she [Margot] had been in there for so long without any water around her, they were convinced I was going to have a C-section because my cervix wasn’t dilating,” Billie says. “And then they were like, ‘One last check’ and I was nine centimetres dilated. The doctor came in and was like, ‘Right, you can start pushing.’”

Billie says that even though she was shattered by this point, she found her inner strength. She explains, “I was exhausted and I got this adrenaline and I don’t know where the energy came from within to push her out, but I was determined. I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m getting her out now.’”

Greg reveals he was taken aback by how long and difficult the birth was for his wife as he presumed the baby would “fly out”.

“Because Nelly was a very long, tiring labour for Billie and Arthur shot out like a bullet, I thought the canal’s there, the passageway is there, so I just thought it would fly out,” he says. “It was probably the most stressful one.”

After a challenging few days, Margot arrived safely at 6.16pm on 2 December, weighing 7lb 10oz. And Greg, Billie and her mum Suzie Wells, who was also at the birth, cried with joy as the newborn arrived.

“It’s the most amazing feeling in the world, when you hear your baby crying and they put them on you,” says Billie. “I was like, ‘What is it? What is it?’ to Greg and he was like, ‘It’s a girl!’ It was the most amazing moment and we captured it all ourselves and it’s all on the show. It’s very raw.”

Within an hour of Margot arriving, her siblings Nelly, eight, and five-year-old Arthur, headed to hospital to meet their little sister. “I wanted to tell them she was a girl,” Billie says. “They came in and met her and their reactions were just priceless. They couldn’t believe it. They were so cute and happy.”

In fact, Nelly even chose her sister’s name. Billie tells us, “When I was pregnant, Nelly was the one who suggested it. She said, ‘Mummy, if we have a girl, shall we call her Margot?’ And then it just stuck. My great-nan was called Margot and Suzanne is her middle name after my mum.”

Like any parent with a newborn, Billie has been low on energy from doing the night feeds and the 4.30am starts. She’s keen to open up about how hard it is for any mums out there who might be feeling the same.

“Having a baby is the best thing in the world and we’re absolutely loving it, but there are times where emotions are running high,” she says. “It’s an emotional roller-coaster and you see all that on the show. I haven’t held back with anything because I do think it’s important to show the reality of having a baby.”

One of the main challenges Billie has come up against is breastfeeding and she quickly noticed that Margot struggled to latch on. “I felt like she wasn’t getting the milk she wanted and needed,” she says. “I started expressing some and I gave her a bottle and she was so much more settled.”

Another hurdle the couple have faced is adapting to being a family-of-five, and Arthur in particular has struggled with the change. “As much as it’s been amazing, we’ve had lots of moments as well – tears, tantrums and it is a big thing adjusting any new baby into a family,” she says.

“With Arthur being the youngest, we always kind of expected it a little bit. He’s being a bit smothering and it’s all for my attention. I’ll be pottering around and he’ll be over her and breathing on her and looking at me out of the corner of his eye. It doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative attention – as long as he’s got my attention. He’s doing things to wind me up.

“You just get so bored of the sound of your own voice. You’re emotional anyway when you have a baby and it’s a massive change. You’re exhausted from the birth, so it was a lot. It’s so draining. I can laugh a little bit about it now, but it’s still going on. You just feel like you’re repeating yourself constantly.”

But Nelly and Arthur have been getting involved and helping their parents, by holding their baby sister when they get home from school. “Arthur, bless him, he’s really good at helping out,” she says. “Whereas Nelly can be a bit like, ‘Oh, am I a slave now?’ But then Nelly’s really good with Margot and can hold her and walk about with her now.”

Her businessman husband Greg proudly describes Billie as an “unbelievable” mother.

“She does all the night feeds,” he tells us. “We have our routine in the morning – I get the kids ready and take them to school, but Billie is with that baby nearly 24/7.”

She also has her sister Sam, 32, who gave birth to her third child Edward last May, on hand to offer her advice about dealing with three kids. “We talk about it all the time,” Billie says. “She says you’ve got to take each day as it comes – and it does get easier.”

The Billie And Greg: The Family Diaries: Baby No3 episode is on Sunday, 7.30pm, ITVBe. Billie And Greg: The Family Diaries returns in April. Watch previous episodes on ITVX

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