Waters broke at 8.30 on Wed morning, contractions started at 12 and baby Isabel was here at 5.30pm! Made the mistake of going out to lunch at 12 as figured not much was happening but as contractions went from zero to every 5min in about 20min, decided to cut it short. Went to hospital at 2pm, after a bit of yowling in the waiting room, was finally admitted around 3pm, and then was bustled off to delivery suite. Hadn't really decided on natural birth but decided to go with flow - but then midwives very discouraging when I started begging for epidural around 4pm. Never got on with the gas and air so it was a very natural birth indeed! One thing to note - every time I lay on my back labour slowed down, and it was much much harder to push. The birthing stool was fantastic for this. In retrospect maybe I would have traded off the longer epi route - not sure, it was bloody painful and I did yell a hell of lot "I don't want to do this!"
DS is very taken with his new baby sister - let's hope it lasts!