"I've finally managed to stop looking at my beautiful baby Ben long enough to put the birth story into an email. He didn't quite wait until the bathroom was finished but did managed to hang until the bath was plumbed in!

On the Friday evening when he was 8 days overdue we risked going for a curry then settled down to watch a film. The contractions started quite quickly and felt very strong - by the end of the film they were every 7 minutes. I decided to try having a bath and whilst in the bath I thought my waters had broken but was a little unsure so rang the hospital. They decided everything was ok and I should stay at home unless anything changed. By now I was finding the contractions very strong and I was unable to "get some sleep in between the contractions" as advised by the hospital. Thankfully sitting on the birth ball or leaning over it and using the straw breathing managed to get me through what seemed like a very long night.

By morning the contractions were every 3 minutes and after speaking to the hospital they advised me to come in to check if my waters had broken. We arrived at the hospital at 8.30am and they found my waters had broken but I was only 2cm dilated. They booked me in for an induction for the Sunday morning but assured me that baby would probably arrive before then. I was given a couple of codeine to help with the pain and sent back home. We arrived back home at 10.30am (after sending the plumber home!). After this, time seemed to go pretty quickly and I was soon getting urges to push. I had another bath then rang the hospital who told me to come back in but it still probably wasn't time. We arrived back in the hospital at 2.30pm Saturday.

While Chris was moving the car from the ambulance bay I was stood by the labour ward reception having a contraction and being told by the midwife not to push! They took me straight through to the midwife-led labour unit to discover I was fully dilated and they expected things to happen quite quickly. After monitoring me and the baby for 20 minutes I was allowed to go into the birth pool which was a great help and the gas and air helped although I found this 2nd phase of labour somehow easier.

Unfortunately baby was not in a hurry to make an entrance and eventually they had to take me out of the pool as they will only allow 4 hours of pushing before they have to intervene. Baby Ben arrived at 6.11pm (30 minutes before the deadline). Unfortunately I had to have a tear repaired in theatre so Chris was literally left holding the baby! We were finally able to leave the hospital on Tuesday after getting the hang of breastfeeding and Ben's slight jaundice starting to clear but we are now happily settling into our new life of nighttime feeds and nappy changes.

Hope everyone is well and good luck to you all - just remember the breathing really does help! x"