Annabelle Lucy, our Christmas gift

We have some very special news to share with you. We welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Annabelle Lucy, into the world on Christmas Day.

The experience of welcoming our second baby into the world felt just as special, spiritual and exhilarating as the birth of our first baby two years earlier. We really attribute our positive experience to the principles delivered in the Calmbirth program and the refresher course we participated in, along with acupuncture that I was having to assist with a natural induction. I also very much valued my ongoing preparations in focusing inward on imagining the birth experience we were envisaging for our baby, along with the breathing exercises that were so useful in focusing my attention as I prepared for and also throughout the birth of our baby.

While words do not really do justice to the wonderful experience that it was, I will try my best to describe our birth story…

The week before Christmas my body was doing lots of practicing, experiencing intense sensations for a few hours at a time that would then subside. I found the breathing exercises very useful during these times to focus on the moments at hand, allowing myself to relax and not get caught up in the feelings of uncertainty that would occasionally arise (as I did not experience pre-labour symptoms with our first baby so this was something that was very new to me).

In the early hours of Christmas morning, soon after my husband Grant arrived home ‪from midnight mass I experienced my first contraction. At this stage I was uncertain whether this may have been my body preparing again. I decided to let my husband sleep while I moved out to our lounge area where between what became more intense sensations I would focus on the lights sparkling on our Christmas tree or have what felt like super power naps! This was a very special time for me and our baby as I gradually realised that this was the real thing and what a special day to experience a true miracle of my body’s natural design and to welcome our miracle into the world. By 7am the sensations were becoming more intense and I woke Grant up, as I felt that I was needing his support. Soon after, our 2-year-old, Thomas woke up and we were able to share his Christmas morning experience with him. It felt very special watching our boy opening his Christmas presents between contractions! We arranged for Grant’s mum to pick up Thomas so we could make our way to the hospital which was a ten-minute drive away.

When we arrived at the hospital I was already 6 centimetres dilated. The next hour was spent on the exercise ball with Grant lightly massaging my lower back between contractions, focusing on my breathe, the smell of essential oils and beautiful music we had playing. At one point I heard the hospital’s Santa handing out gifts. I heard the midwife say, “not this room, this mother is about to birth her baby”. I can remember thinking – ‘is she talking about me?’ Things were still feeling very relaxed. Soon after I told the midwife that I was needing to bare down. I was now 8 centimetres dilated. My obstetrician was called and arrived in what felt like only a few minutes. After three pushes our beautiful baby girl, Annabelle Lucy was born.