Christmas has been a different story for us this year. We always knew it was going to be touch and go as to whether or not our due date of Boxing day was going to be realised but when it got closer to the time it seemed more and more likely that Helen would be going into labour sooner rather than later. The build up to Frank’s birth was quite long, Helen was in and out of hospital 6 times in 10 days with 1 overnight stay due to high blood pressure concerns. The only thing to cure this problem was to get this baby out! However we had our own plans as to how this would happen.

Thanks to a dedicated yoga practice and some hypno-birthing techniques throughout Helen’s pregnancy we were very keen to have a natural birth and if possible have access to a birthing pool. One reason why we chose Stepping Hill hospital over others was due to the amount of birthing pools they have available – 4 in total. However with all of the blood pressure concerns our dreams looked likely to be squashed, but we kept positive and made sure anyone who was working with us knew exactly what we wanted birth wise.

So on Christmas Eve and after 24 hours in hospital under observation Helen was dis-charged with a cervical sweep which revealed that we were 2cm dilated already. It looked favourable that a natural labour would proceed and straight away Helen noticed things had changed down there, the pre-labour pains seemed to be more intense and by the time we were home the contractions had began.

A Christmas Day baby was upon us and below is another up-close visual diary as to how things progressed. Let’s just say we had the birth we wanted, beyond and above all of our expectations. Upon arriving at hospital at 6.30am we discovered Helen was now 6cm dilated and our midwife Kay guided us through the rest of the labour and Frank Leo Rutter, weighing 6lbs8oz was born at 9.41am in a birthing pool using gas and air only and the all powerful breath. Kay was like an angel waiting to take us under her wing. The experience of the birth of our beautiful baby boy was so powerful and one we will never forget.

Thank you to Stepping Hill hospital.
Enjoy.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Nikon D600 35mm f1.8 & 105mm f2.8 Macro)

We made our way back from The Great Ocean Road after finding out we would be needing to check into our accommodation on the 26th and not the 27th as we had initially planned. This mean’t we were up fairly early and on the road in good time to get us to Melbourne that evening. Most of the journey was on the A1 from Warrrnambool and as it was Australia Day there wasn’t much traffic on the roads.

We had a brief stop in Colac before opting for lunch in Geelong where big Aussie Day carnivals were taking place. Geelong was packed all along the water front with volleyball tournaments, helicopter rides, sailing excursions and food stalls dominating much of the domain areas as well as thousands of people out for a picnic or crazy diving in the swimming area. We were surrounded by teenagers body-painted in the Aussie flag and families enjoying  their own fun and games.

When we left Geelong we were on the M1 which took us straight into Melbourne, it was an hour or so before we arrived at our humble lodgings with Jane and John who live in the Glen Waverley suburb. We were welcomed instantly and had were shown around their home and then into our bedroom for the next week, we couldn’t help but smile, this place is fantastic and we would have our own bed and bathroom for the next week all to our very selves. We found Jane and John through their Airbnb and listing for Melbourne, they are exceptional value for the fact that they throw in breakfast too and we were paying on average about $43 per night. Amazing! The only draw back is their location to central Melbourne, but we decided we could live with this. So after settling in and taking advantage of having the car still with us we did a Coles food shop, cooked dinner and chilled out.

On the 27th we dropped our car off successfully and wandered around the CBD a little before making our way to the Australian Tennis Open at Melbourne Park. We’ve done a separate blog post for our time at the Melbourne Open so if you want to read about that then just follow the link.

On the 28th we enjoyed a lovely day and evening with our friends Vic and Dave, by now you should be familiar with this pair as we’ve managed to meet up with them in Malborough and Christchurch, NZ and now Melbourne where they are going to make a living for themselves. It was a lovely day of food and drinks down at Baumaris beach which is a great spot for swimming followed by a fun an impromptu barbecue at their cousins place where they are currently staying.

So we ate, drank and boogied until we felt like going to bed, as it was a mission for us getting back to Glen Waverley we opted for a little sleep over in the form of foam mattresses in their very cosy lounge. The next morning we were ready for some tennis action once again.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)