And baby makes three

As they welcome their first child, AFL power couple Abbey Holmes and Keegan Brooksby open up their home to talk about their path to parenthood - and what is ahead for their little family.

- SUE SMETHURST

Abbey Holmes admits she loses track of time staring into her bub's eyes, especially in the quiet moments when he's nestled softly in her arms, feeding.

“It’s the way he looks at me, his eyes are so intent and I wonder what he is thinking,” she says, gently rubbing baby Brax’s toes.

As if on cue, the seven-week-old’s tiny fingers unclench and grasp for his mum, his little hand wrapping around her finger for comfort.

“When he starts to wake up and his eyes are beginning to open, he looks at you with a knowing look, like he recognises us and he’s happy to see us, that’s my favourite moment,” says proud dad, former AFL player Keegan Brooksby.

It’s not surprising to learn that within hours of his dramatic arrival, baby Braxton John Brooksby was tucked up in his mum’s arms, watching the footy.

For the popular Channel Seven AFL commentator, it was the perfect way to catch her breath after a difficult labour, which ended in a last-minute caesarean.

With his dad’s towering height, baby Brooksby was destined to be a big bub, and measured in the 90th percentile throughout Abbey’s pregnancy. He was in no hurry to make his way into the world. “The doctors broke my waters and I laboured all day,” says Abbey, 34, “but after 11 hours, I was still only two centimetres dilated, and not making any progress, so the decision was made for him to come out.

“His head was big, he wasn’t moving anywhere, and my doctor said, “You’d be pushing until Christmas and this bub wouldn’t come out’. We didn’t have a birth plan, we were happy to go with the flow whichever was the safest way for him to arrive,” she says, eyes locked on the sleeping bundle in her arms.

“The moment the doctor put him on my chest and I held his little hand will be etched in my mind forever.”