Kellie Shirley has shared an insight into her birth story with her baby boy, Ezra, and is opening up about her life now as a mum-of-three.
The EastEnders actress, known for her role as Carly Wicks on the BBC soap, welcomed the birth of her third child in March of this year.
Now, speaking to OK!, Kellie says she “feels very lucky” since baby Ezra made his arrival into the world.
“It’s like being on happy pills. It’s so all-consuming. You’re so full of love – and knackered – but you get those moments when Ezra does what looks like a smile and you forget that you’ve been up since 3am. It’s just lovely”.
The soap star welcomed Ezra via C-section as she felt it was safer after being diagnosed with strep B during her pregnancy because the bacteria could’ve been passed to her little one during labour otherwise.
“They can give you antibiotics if you want to give birth naturally, but it felt like the safer option, and I had a Caesarean last time”.
Revealing she felt it was easier giving birth to Ezra than her twins she explained, “Last time I went to 9cm and caught an infection and it was just so nuts. So it was a very different experience going in with my bag, knowing he would be born that day”.
The 41-year-old went on to detail her labour, which she had photographed, and she could hear her baby crying from within her womb.
“He was crying from within the womb. As they were cutting through to the last layer, they were like, ‘Can you hear him?’ It was mad”.
“We’ve got some great photographs of him being born – it looks almost biblical. The moment he was born I burst into tears”.
“I felt speechless, watching this little human being that I’ve been growing coming out of my body. It’s this massive whoosh of love and hormones, and everything is so heightened and intense. It’s amazing. I was a right mess!”.
Explaining how she and her husband Phil Davies chose their bundle of joy’s name, Shirley shared the fun way they decided.
“When we discussed names, we decided to go, ‘One, two, three…’ and say our favourite name out loud. We both said ‘Ezra’ at the same time and we couldn’t believe it”.
“We hadn’t spoken about the name before and were like, ‘What are the chances?’”.
Kellie and Phil are already proud parents to seven-year-old twins Pearl and Louie, who Kellie reveals have been a great help since the arrival of their little brother.
