Hello lovelies, and huge congratulations (do congratulations come in sizes?) to mrsra and choco. 
Sorry for the long silence, I was doing my time in hospital and got out today. Here it is three full days, which actually was quite nice because I got to have my breastfeeding meltdowns in the presence of people who can actually help and they gave me food. 
Baby is called Nour and he is very squishy and so far quite calm. Not sure if this is going to last, but cautiously optimistic as I feel I am owed a calm baby after DD's two year long cluster feeding and not sleeping spectacular.
As far as the birth goes, by the time we left for hospital my waters were going from pink to green so went in sharpish. They weren't answering the phone because as it was a holiday they had closed the part of the maternity a&e with a phone in it. 
Once there they did get me hooked up to a monitor pretty quick, and said I needed to give birth that night since there was meconium in the waters. Contractions were pretty uncomfortable by 8:30 and coming really close together but I was only 3cm dilated so I figured we were in for a long haul. An hour later at 4cm I decided I had been a bit over confident about no pain relief and asked for an epidural. Moved into the delivery room and into a gown, and by this time I was being properly pathetic, saying I didn't want any more contractions, that was quite enough and that I wasn't too bothered about the whole baby thing. Contractions now excruciating, which I still don't understand since DD was a pain free drip induction, so I assumed going into labour naturally would be less intense. Nurse took three attempts to get the saline drip in, which took half an hour, and by the time the anaesthetist arrived I needed to push, though I was only 5 cm dilated. This was the worst bit, and TMI, I felt like I was going to rip in two stopping my body from pushing. Obviously they didn't really want to give me the epidural at this point but I was very insistent and loud and pathetic so they must have felt their lives were in danger or something and gave it to me anyway. As soon as it was sited the midwife told me it was okay to push and that the baby was crowning. I was a total wimp, although the effort of pushing at least stopped me complaining so much and just when I had really had enough the midwife handed me the baby, and I started breathing again. Delivered the placenta quickly and then had to be examined and sewn up. As the midwife had by this point realised that I am in fact deranged and quite possibly dangerous, she wouldn't tell me how many stitches I had but said they weren't too many and all on the inside. I also have a small graze which she said would hurt more, and she is right. Anyone know what this stitches on the inside thing is all about? She then told me as she was leaving that Nour had had the cord wrapped twice around his neck and that is why they think there was blood and meconium in my waters.
So all in all, I had what I think was a very lucky and probably not too bad labour, but proved myself rather over optimistic in terms of ability to cope with intense contractions. I have to say I did feel absolutely fine as soon as it was over and just felt annoyed I had to stay lying down til the saline drip had finished.
Spookily, Nour was exactly the same weight and length as DD, 49cm and 7lb2. I can only imagine what I would have been like with a 9lber. 
On a positive note, for all of you still pregnant, I can tell you that in the twelve hours I have been home I have done more round the house than I did in a month of being pregnant. Just being able to bend down is amazing!
Any news from sultana and Henry?