We had a boy, Samuel Ellis (Ellis is a family name from Chris) 8 pound 4… and 10 days past his official due date. He must have done some serious growing in those last few days! He is quite long and has my enormous feet otherwise, he is a little Chris!

I guess labour technically started on Friday afternoon I had walked into town to meet some girlfriends for lunch, and on the way home, I had to stop walking cause my back was cramping in a weird way. I was meant to have an acupuncture appointment after that, but called the guy to tell him I wouldn’t make it I just didn’t think it would be smart to drive anymore because I was feeling so emotional that I couldn’t think straight!

He ended up coming to do a house visit instead which was quite nice having all the Chinese herbs being burnt on the points in the comfort of your own home!! There were a few more surges that were anywhere between 20 & 40 minutes apart overnight, and then the next morning, my waters broke or at least I thought they did. A pretty non-eventful version of ‘waters breaking’ I thought! Anyway, come 5 pm in the afternoon, the surges were 5 minutes apart, so I thought it would be an idea to get closer to the hospital in Nambour, so we booked a hotel in Alexandra Headlands on WotIf.

In the car on the way to the hospital, I experienced the REAL waters releasing! Holy Dooley!!! It was like I was sitting in a wading pool! Luckily we have leather seats…I don’t think fabric seats would have recovered!! We checked into the hotel at 7:30 pm, had some dinner and then checked out @ 11 pm!

When I got to the hospital I promptly spewed my dinner up (seriously tasty salad what a waste!!) and then I proceeded to hurl my way through the rest of the night. Between every other surge, I had a sick bag in front of me! I was actually quite happy about this though. I was thinking about all the pressure of vomiting, it was helping Sam make his way out! I spent 5 hours in the bath, and then just got sick of being wet…couldn’t quite regulate my body temperature. I had 2 of the most amazing midwives & one of them I was convinced had done Hypnobirthing  and she visited me after the birth to say how well she thought it went  so I asked her about whether she was a Hypnobirthing Practitioner, and she wasn’t, but geez, if she was, there wouldn’t be much change in her approach I don’t think ” she was the best!

I gave birth (over a beanbag) at 7:30 am and the birthing part I thought was great. I really enjoyed the sensations of birth as they were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced (of course!!), but also, unlike anything I expected.

I really loved the birthing part. The surges were such a mental test, and I found that if I didn’t have my thoughts right before a surge came up, I was in a world of trouble, but if I was right, then it was completely fine. I am keen to do it again so that I can ‘do it better’ as such! I found that the breathing with the surges was great, and I had Steven Halpin’s music playing the entire time. I didn’t use any of the visualisations, but Chris had his Cheat Sheet that we adapted from the one you gave us, and he ad-libbed on top of it too he has been just fantastic the guy with zero emotion (pre-Samuel) has turned into an emotional being it is really lovely to see him with Sam, and he has just been so great to me as well.

Given another chance, I would like to get my head ready to REMEMBER about the breathing through each of the surges because for me I think that is key. But the whole experience of having Sam was just incredible & I can see why women go back for more!!

Melissa, you have been so integral in helping me have this great birth, I can’t thank you enough. I thought of you quite a few times… it was the breathing I kept coming back to!

Lots of love, and my many thanks again,

Sally and Chris, Kelvin , Brisbane

PS. Even Chris has been talking up the Hypnobirthing. I almost fell off the couch when I heard him saying this to all his mates he said “You would think it is all this hippy crap, but it is actually really good”. Said like only a man could