Hello everyone, finally got a chance to post (a week after it all kicked off)... will quickly type out birth story (trying to keep it brief):
As you know, my waters broke (with a distinct 'pop') last wednesday morning, and immediately started having contractions around ten minutes apart. These lasted for a couple of hours but then became much more sporadic. Took a walk with DH to try and get things going again, and when we got home I took some homeopathic remedies and DH massaged some acupressure points - this seemed to get contractions going a little more regularly, but still anything between 15 and 30 minutes apart. Midwife advised not to worry, apparently current 'rules' are that you can go for up to four days after waters break before they will intervene.
However, at six o'clock that evening I went to change my pad (been leaking fluid all day long), and found that there was meconium in there... midwife popped over to check that it wasn't just some old blood, but confirmed that it was definitely meconium and quite a lot of it too, so unfortunately my homebirth plans went straight out the window, and we had to go immediately up to hospital where I was strapped onto fetal monitor and given drip to get contractions going properly. This also meant no chance of water birth and restricted my movements/positioning options. However, it did mean that I was getting much closer to meeting my baby (!) and after being on the drip for a couple of hours the contractions were really starting to come on strong. Just as I was getting to the point where I didn't know quite how to handle the pain anymore, or what to do with myself I felt the urge to push, and midwife confirmed that I was fully dilated and ready to go. 25 minutes of pushing (which seemed like such a relief after the intensity of the first stage contractions) and out popped baby's head. Whilst we were waiting for the next contraction (to get the rest of her out) she opened her eyes and started breathing, making little noises, whilst we gazed at her beautiful head - that was most certainly one of the most surreal moments of my life!
She came out very calmly and latched on to feed within the first couple of minutes, which was lovely. I lost quite a lot of blood (bit of a shock to DH I think as our previous homebirth in pool was not very bloody at all), but the midwives were just gorgeous and so supportive and I think given the circumstances it was a remarkably easy birth.
Unfortunately the subsequent 24 hours on the postnatal ward did not compare. They wanted to do 2-hourly checks on baby, as due to the amount of meconium in utero there was a possibility of lung infection, and this necessitated me staying in for the next 24 hours. However, after 18 hours DH and I could clearly tell that baby was doing really well, whereas I was starting to hallucinate from lack of sleep (hadn't managed to get any kip since the previous morning). BUT because baby's respiratory rate was marginally lower than 'required' by the paedeatricians they didn't want to discharge us. Cut a long story short, we eventually discharged ourselves against their wishes (at 11pm on Thursday), having promised to come straight back in if we felt that anything at all was awry with baby during the night. This meant that I finally crashed at home and we ALL slept for four hours, which made me feel sane again.
Obviously having had a homebirth with DC1 I had no idea what it would be like on the postnatal ward, and I have to say that it was quite a shock, it is far from the kind of environment that I would wish on a new mum and a new baby. They were full to bursting, the poor midwives just didn't have time to really attend consistently to anyone, it was hot and stuffy with no fresh air, the food was astonishingly lame (I managed to get one piece of fresh fruit - an apple - eventually, but this was not easily forthcoming), and I would imagine that if I was a first-time mother I would have been completely freaked out and bewildered by the whole experience.
Anyhow, that's my rant over. Thankfully since we've been back home I've had the full support and attention of my lovely community midwives, as well as my mum, and both myself and Kitty have been chilled out and happy. In fact she is a total revelation in comparison to her big sister - who we seemed to have to bounce around the room on an almost constant basis for the first four months, with barely half an hours snatched sleep here and there. Kitty has been a total star, feeding like crazy (on day five she was three ounces UP on her birth weight), and sleeping easily, and only really crying with wind or hunger. What a difference!
So from what I can recall, out of all the people on here who were aiming/hoping for a homebirth, not one of us has managed it so far - or have I missed someone out? It would make some interesting stats I think.
Meanwhile I have been reading the thread, and keeping up with the last few left - waving pom poms all over the place for TP, Jojo, CosmicCloud, Alice, Millie and Blackcats... come on you babies, we need to meet you soon! Hope that the last few days aren't too tiring/stressful for any of you, Blackcats did you manage to track down a support belt to help you?
Also massive congrats to Louplet (what a beautiful name for your girl, sounds like an angel's name!) Sarahseager, Conker, Wasps and Yoshi, I will keep up with all your news on the postnatal thread now I guess.
Hope I haven't missed anyone - apologies if I have, blaming it on the sleep deprivation 
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It's really getting warm now huh? Hope that our little ones can cope with the heatwave, and that the mums-in-waiting don't have to suffer last minute swollen ankles on top of everything else!