Thankyou everyone.
I have been trying to find a moment to post the details but it has elluded me so far since she was born.
Well, as you know, early labour started on her due date (6th) and carried on with contractions for hours at a time before petering out for over a week. On several occasions, I was sure that this was it but all of that contracting had only got me to 3cms dilated. On Tuesday 13th, I woke up with pretty strong contractions again and they lasted about 4-5 hours. Later that afternoon, my (poor, longsuffering) midwife came round and did a sweep (the 3rd one I've had in a week) and this time it worked and carried on working!
She stayed with me for the next 2 hours or so to make sure things were kicking off (she also helped me sort the kids out while I was having contractions). At 6.50, I had got to 5 cms and she broke my waters. From that moment, there was no stopping me. Dh came home about then, and the 2nd midwife arrived (a good friend, like the 1st midwife) and shortly after, my friend Tanya (training midwife) arrived as did my parents to put the kids to bed. I got into the bath for a while but started to feel pressure and knew it wouldn't be long before I needed to push.
At about 8.30pm, when the kids were in bed in the next room, I asked my folks to go home (and upset my mother in the process apparantely ) and started the gas and air as the contractions were incredibly strong and with very little space between them. The Tens, which had been on since the bath was really not terribly useful by this stage and back rubbing was just rubbing me up the wrong way. I got onto the floor and leaned over the gym ball and expected that the midwife would want to examine me - I really wanted to know how far along I was and with the history of the previous week fresh in my mind, was convinced that she'd tell me I was only 6cms or something like that with hours to go. She said she didn't want to and to just go with what my body was telling me to do (This was at 9pm). It was telling me to push like crazy. So I did - about 5 times and out she came (9.05pm). All in one go - it was rather a surprise. She started crying straight away and came for a feed as soon as I could turn over. She feeds like a natural! Had the injection for the 3rd stage (which was just as well considering what happened later) and all was well with that.
After I was cleaned up, we realised that I was bleeding heavily - they thought the womb wasn't contracting properly and that was the casue so I had another dose of syntomet-whatever it's called but was still bleeding heavily after that. They thought I had only had a small labial graze from the birth but after a while of careful looking by the midwives, they realise that I had many more tears internally and high up. So, they had to do the surgery on my bed with an angle poise lamp. They didn't get to go home until 4 hours after the birth. Thankfully it worked - I'm so glad they felt brave enough to do the surgery themselves because they were talking about a blue light trip to the hospital - and after getting my homebirth, that was the last thing I wanted! It turns out that they are fantastic seamstresses and will be first on my list if I ever need alterations to clothing. I couldn't have been more blessed with them - they made a fantastic team.
So, after all that, my baby girl is settling in to life on the outside well - she is beautiful of course, but thn I am biased.
She weighed 7 lb 12oz and has been called Aimie Flora Grace. Her brother and sister are getting used to her and think she is very cute.
Sorry about the long post and the gorey information. Thankyou all for rooting for us