quite easy all in all...
started contractions at about 8:30 in evening. went into hospital at 11. they measured me at 12:30 and said i wasn't even in labour yet! pah! said i should go home!!
thank goodness she relented and let me stay an hour to 'see how things progress'. by 1:45 i was 5 cms and after 2 really bad contractions at 2:30 i felt the need to push. didn't even have time to get on the bed so dd2 was born standing up, with only 2 pushes. took about 10 seconds, thank god, because it was rather painful.
so active labour only 2 hours, and there wasn't time for an epidural which i was determined to have. in retrospect, it was fine not to have one. you forget the pain quite quickly really.
baby is GORGEOUS, a bit like john travolta, and is feeding well.