Dear Kat,

I wanted to write to let you know about the safe arrival of our precious little boy who was born last Thursday at 7.02pm. After all our talks of inductions, being a geriatric mother and general anxiety about the whole ‘over 40’ thing- we are over the moon that he made an early appearance and I had a natural birth without any medical intervention (well three sweeps but I’m not counting those)- in fact I think I actually breathed the baby out this time! Go me.

Here’s our story…

Last Thursday morning I went on a quest to Lidl in search of wooden toys and then met a friend for coffee. I had some mild surges whilst chatting to my friend but was having such a nice time I thought not to mention it. When we left, she commented on my funny waddly walk but I thought that was how it had always been the past few weeks. When I got home my surges ramped up a bit and I let J know that I was pretty sure something was happening. We had some avocado on toast amongst the surges and I practiced my breathing techniques to get through them. We called my mum in the afternoon so she could come and pick our son up from nursery so the ‘who looks after the toddler’ anxiety quickly went away.

We spent the afternoon listening to some nice playlists that I’d made for A’s birth but never used at the time and phoned the hospital when the surges became more regular. They advised us to stay at home until they lasted a bit longer so we remained in our room, listening to lovely music, watching the sun setting and the planes circling around London. There were also two stars in the sky when it got dark which we decided were my dad and Js mum looking over us. Our cat Peter also sat with me for the whole afternoon so we’re calling him my secret doula, it’s like he knew.

By about 5pm my surges were pretty intense so we phoned the hospital and they advised us that we should come in if I felt ready. I gave my mum & A a kiss in between surges and set off for hospital at 5:30. We arrived shortly after 6 (me wearing sunglasses to maintain my happy vibes) and I was 8cm. We quickly went to the newly renovated lilac birth centre which was all sorts of beautiful and the midwife asked if I wanted to get straight in the pool. I asked if it was time and she said yes, I think your baby will be here soon. He was born less than an hour later with Yann Tiersen playing in the background.

I honestly don’t know if I could have written a more perfect birth for this little man, we really felt like we had angels looking over us last Thursday.

I am so happy that we checked in with you during this pregnancy to help arm me with some tools for labour and also for your recordings to try and calm my worried mind in the run up. I practiced the 4-8 breathing throughout my labour, had the happiest of music to listen to, nice things to smell, tried my best to keep my jaw relaxed during the surges, kept envisaging the flower opening and had images of A’s face in complete happiness at riding a train to see Santa the day before. I also had the mantra I am a warrior in my head at the very end when it was most intense.

Although challenging, we’ve managed to move past the name ‘Nobbie/ Norbert’ and have settled on Robin. Robin’s are a sign of hope, renewal, rebirth, and better times in the future. They were also J’s mum’s favourite little bird and are said to appear when loved ones are nearby. He is our hope for a happier future after all the sadness this year. We feel so blessed he is here safely.

Thank you so much for your kindness and guidance during this journey and our previous one with A, we feel so lucky to know you wise and wonderful woman.

Sending you so much love and happiness.

xxx