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Rebecca Lim has welcomed her second child — and it’s a girl. But the happy occasion nearly came with a plot twist: her husband Matthew Webster almost didn’t make it back to Singapore in time for the birth.

The 39-year-old actress gave birth to her daughter — a 3.6kg baby — last week. When she went into labour, Matthew, also 39, was overseas for work in Indonesia.

“Thankfully he managed to take an earlier flight back… his colleagues were very understanding,” Rebecca tells 8days.sg over the phone.

He really cut it close.

“He came back about three hours before,” she says. “Initially it was my mum accompanying me in the delivery ward, and then they had a tag team moment — over to you, Matthew.”

Matthew, clearly in panic mode, wasted no time once he got the call.

“He had already arranged for an earlier flight, but after work he just rushed straight to the airport to see if he could get on any flight back,” shares Rebecca.

The baby was actually expected to arrive about two weeks earlier but came later than anticipated and Matthew had already committed to his work trip.

“I reassured him that whatever is going to happen will happen and if he wasn't around, it would be fine. Just get me like a big gift when the time comes,” she says with a laugh.

Thankfully, baby girl, whom Rebecca wants to be known only as “Baby M”, held on long enough (she was in labour for 12 hours) for daddy to make it back in time.

That said, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. Baby M had to stay in hospital a little longer for some medical checks, though Rebecca reassures us that everything is now under control.

Big brother is (quietly) stepping up

The couple, who got married in 2022, also have a two-year-old son, and he’s now settling into life as a big brother.

And while he’s still adjusting to the new addition at home, things are off to a sweet start.

“The first day he was very apprehensive… but now he’s been very sweet,” Rebecca shares. “He’ll just smile to himself when he looks at her.”

No hugs or kisses yet, but Rebecca says those little moments say a lot.

“He’s always been quite shy in showing affection, a bit like me,” she laughs.

Matthew, on the other hand, looks like he’s already a full-on “girl dad”.

“He just keeps staring at her and saying how beautiful she is,” Rebecca reveals. “He did that for our son too, but not as often… and he didn’t look at him and say, ‘What a handsome dude’,” shares Rebecca.

And while she’s looking forward to the next few months of “blissful ordinary life”, Rebecca isn’t sugarcoating what life with a newborn (and a toddler) looks like.

“Surviving is the word,” she laughs. “Back to pumping [breast milk], back to perspiring all the time, back to not looking good, not smelling good, not feeling good…”

Ah, the glamour of motherhood.

Still, she says things have been manageable so far, thanks to a strong support system.

As for baby number three…

“I would love to, but I really don’t think I can go through this again,” she admits with a laugh.

The actress, who grew up in a family of three kids, says this pregnancy and postpartum experience has been a stark reminder of how demanding it can be physically.

“This experience really showed me what a few years can do to your body,” she says. “Being pregnant, going through labour and then taking care of your child… it can be very taxing.”

For now, she’s more than content where she is.

“Two sounds pretty perfect to me right now,” she says, before adding, “But we’ll see…”

Photos: Rebecca Lim, limrebecca/Instagram