We did it! Harrison Anthony George Dunbar born 10/10/10!

Hello Patricia I wanted to send you an email with huge thanks for all of your advice and support over the last 5 months - and to bring you and the yoga girls news of our new baby boy Harrison who was born (to his Daddy's HUGE pride!) on 10/10/10 at 0434 and weighing 7lbs 11oz - not bad for an overdue baby! He's long but not huge - was born at 41 + 3 weeks in the end. I felt so prepared for labour thanks to your classes and very very calm when it happened. I had an induction booked for today (Tues 12) and was so upset at the thought of it happening like that, I became a bit inventive! Tried all your advice, homeopathy, etc etc and nothing was happening so on Thurs the midwife did a sweep - I was very unsure if it was the right decision but had waited a week and refused and felt it was better than the drugs on induction. Nothing happening so on Friday night was in two minds about coming to class again as normal but decided to use the time to take on your last bit of advice and try acupuncture! I went to Cathy - she was amazing - did one session at 7pm Friday which brought on a big show straight away and a few Braxton Hicks (which I hadn't had any of previously) that night. Saturday morning and it had all died down again so I stimulated the labour needle she had left in my ear and they started up again - I went for another top up session with Cathy at 11 and the contractions strengthened into the real thing! Went out for lunch with contractions every 5 minutes which were intense but not terrible but headed home at about 3 as it felt like things were stepping up. Laboured at home using hypnobirthing and yoga (both brilliant) until 6pm when we went to hospital already 5-6cm dilated! Admitted straight away and spent the next 8 hours in stage 1. The hypnosis was incredible and (I never expected this) did most of stage 1 with just TENS and hypnosis in total silence! Used the ball too and tried to move around but actually found it quite hard - although standing and leaning helped with the pain. The midwife thought I'd be done by midnight but his positioning WAS an issue (just as you said!) which slowed things down so they broke my waters at about 2 as only progressed to 7cms. Then used birthing pool and did transition and the birth in the pool within 2 hours with gas and air (which wasn't that great but distracting!) He came out posterior after all! which explained why things didn't progress brilliantly, but I cannot praise the midwife enough (Kathy Moore) - she read my birth plan and created total calm and reassurance the whole time. By transition I was yelling for drugs after all! but she pretty much refused me meaning the whole birth was natural with no intervention at all. They said it was really busy but I felt like the only person on the ward and feel incredibly lucky. I'll stop my boring story now! but wanted to say a huge thank you for helping me feel so prepared and confident and excited about the whole thing. The yoga was absolutely brilliant in the run up to the birth and although I wasn't as active as I had expected (because it made me feel a bit odd during labour - probably because of the positioning) I had a clear idea of how to help him progress and what to do to stay active. Please send my love to all the girls and hope to see you soon Jess