Lwatkins, I was induced at 8 days as my baby was overdue and I'm quite old as well (37, nearly 38) and the bank holiday was coming up.
They admitted me at 7 pm on Wednesday and had a first go soon after, contractions started at 2 am that night but dilation very slow in my case, in the end did go into second stage of labour but was given a time limit of an hour to push without further intervention.
They used a ventouse cup in the end but that worked well and quite quickly - much less than an hour - surgeon did put in some stitches but my mum reckons he did a very good job of it, they seem to have healed quite well. Everyone was astonished that I resisted any drugs beyond gas and air but the truth was I'm scared of injections. The drawback of the induction method used, and I'm a bit hazy about what it was, was that I spent most of my labour wired up to monitors and on my back, not the position I'd have chosen (it is apparently slower than other positions).
All was well in the end and I'm glad to have avoided pethedine, epidurals and caesaerian, not that there's anything wrong with these for other people in my view, just that they all scared me for different reasons. The ventouse cup seemed to me one of the least scary devices used to intervene in labour for some reason (I saw it at my sole antenatal class and on a TV programme), perhaps I had some premonition that it would be the way forward, literally, for Danny.
I hope all goes well for you and hope to hear what happens, is anyone on this thread taking on the forwarding of birth messages. elliekthepa has done this for April antenatal thread participants and I've found that really valuable, particularly as my experiences since the birth have been pretty tough going.