We’re just emerging from the fourth trimester, and I’ve realised I never let you know how we got on…!

On Monday 6th December our gorgeous little boy, Bodhi, was born. As I had thought and we had chatted about in our sessions, Bodhi’s arrival was both quick and early (he was ‘due’ on 16th December).

I spent most of the day having very mild, manageable contractions, and happily spent the day baking a cake (I think I knew it would become Bodhi’s birthday cake!). At around 5pm the contractions/surges suddenly got stronger and closer together.  They were difficult to monitor as sometimes they would be 3-5mins apart or rolling into one another and at other points they would completely stop – Hari, our eldest, wanted a cuddle and for a good ten minutes they stopped! I think now, in that moment, that was what my mind and my body needed, to give Hari a huge hug knowing I was leaving him for the night and his little brother was about to arrive. That hug is actually one of my favourite moments of the birth.

Given it was rush hour, it was really difficult to get a taxi (lots of drivers just wouldn’t take us!!), and the journey that would normally take 15 minutes took close to hour. Just before we got in the taxi I remember feeling overcome with emotions – I now think that might have been the ‘transition’ phase.

In our sessions I  mentioned I was worried about keeping going in the taxi to the hospital. I needn’t have worried, I remember being very much ‘in the zone’ with all my focus just to make it to the 7th floor of St. Thomas’.  I’m actually really proud of how calm both Danny and I were (thank you hypnobirthing!) – the contractions were rolling into each other and at points traffic was at a standstill, but we just held (gripped!) each other’s hands and went with it.

We arrived at the hospital at 7.50pm (Uber helpfully tracks journey times), somehow we made it through the hospital and up in the lift to the 7th floor triage where my waters broke and the urge to “push” was so strong.  The midwives managed to transfer me to a bed and with two pushes/contractions Bodhi arrived at 8.09pm. It was beautiful and breathtaking! We then had a very calm golden couple of hours with Bodhi on my chest breastfeeding like a pro.

Since then Bodhi, very much like his birth, seems to be taking life in his stride and is a very happy little chap. Being a family of four is both wonderful and chaotic, and it is lovely to watch Hari and Bodhi’s relationship grow.

Second time through I’ve been reflecting on how beautifully different Hari and Bodhi’s births were. In Hari’s birth we spent a blissful few hours in the birthing pool before Hari arrived. Bodhi’s birth was pretty frantic and intense. But, through both of them, I remember feeling such a strong, primal connection to our boys and in those moments I was so confident that we were fine and we could totally do it (and we totally did!).

Thank you so much Kat for your support – both through the hypnobirthing course a couple of years ago and the one to one sessions we had recently. While keeping us calm, it has also given us a further level of mindfulness to the births which meant we’ve enjoyed them so much more.

A couple of family photos below…

Anneka xx