Ooh, go on cym! Hope it's a breeze!
la my bf lives very near you and she is positively ecstatic about the new John Lewis, it looks amazing.
Re: hosp bags, meant to say that I thoroughly recommend taking your on loo roll, or a pack of moist toilet tissue. You might feel a bit of a ninny with it on post natal, but the hospital issue toilet roll is like frigging sandpaper, and if you end up with a bit of what I like to refer to as, ahem, 'arts and crafts' on your foof and surrounding region, then it is NO JOKE trying to wipe with it. I recommend the Andrex with aloe or Shea. It's nice and thick.
RE: pants - I bought size 16-18 pants and ended up using my 12-14 ones that is used all pregnancy - I felt they held my maternity pads in place more snugly, the massive ones it all felt a bit haphazard and too loose.
I will do my birth story! It's just taken a couple of weeks to reconcile it in my brain, will try and pick up where I stopped posting I'd morphine haze!
So to recap, I went into mat assessment on Tuesday afternoon as I'd been leaking red watery fluid, had lots of monitoring, was contracting, but not dialating, and the mw couldn't even see my cervix. They kept me in as tiny tees heart rate kept spiking but not going back down as they would have liked, and my blood pressure was a little bit exciting, and all the bloody fluid I was leaking. Had oramorph and co co codamol about 4 ish and we walked around the hospital until about 8, got allocated a room in delivery and originally was told if TT's hr was okay then we could go home after an hour of monitoring. It wasn't, and I started to contract one in seven, and it hurt! Had some more paracetamol, bath, still not dialated at all, paced, bounced, ate a lot of Percy pigs and had some tea, and then about 1am I asked for more pain relief. Had diamorph about 2am I think, and still not dialated, got told to try and sleep and use the entonox if I needed. I was told no epidural until 4-5 cm so I just had to get there as next goal. Tiny tee was back to back.
Snoozed for about an hour and then the diamorph just wasn't cutting it, so was sucking down the g&a listening to pink floyd on my little speaker set to try and distract myself (was v. Trippy and good). By 5am I was in bits, and had barely any break between contractions and was sobbing into the g&a mouthpiece so Mr tee went to find a midwife and she came and examined me at 5cm, said I could go onto labour ward and have epidural. Cried some more (joyous progression tears!). Forced myself to walk round there as sitting down was bloody agony with my back, and then got told the numb juice man was in theatre, but not to worry, there would be another one in soon.
This is where it gets a little hazy for a couple of hours viroids, because I absolutely lost my shit, I am no wuss, but having been contracting for 12 hours, and barely able to speak or stand, or think through them had started to wear a bit thin. Got given some more morphine, which made me talk about Swiss rolls, and then I don't really know what I did, I must have done something because I didn't sleep, and Mr tee said that getting through those four hours were just hideous because I was still in pain, but not really with it either. I recall the anaesthetist setting up at 9am, so I waited 4 sodding hours for the epidural, by which point the morphine had worn off and I'd gone back to losing my shit again. Also had a shift change, so the room was full of people trying to arrange me in position for epidural and then the anaesthetist telling them all to sod off and getting Mr tee to hold me up. He also gave me a little drop more morphine which was nice.
And then! Bliss. That epidural was AMAZING. I suddenly woke up from the pain fog, had some tea and toast and felt a million times better. TT wasn't happy with the contractions still, but I wasn't progressing beyond 5cm, so I had some synto and a pessary. Didn't feel a bloody thing, 'twas marvellous. Spent the next four hours apologising to anyone I was shitty to pre epidural, and had two lovely midwives. Consultant kept popping in and out and I was given until 2pm to be fully dialated or they wanted to go for a section. In spite of loads of water leakage I actually hadn't completely lost all my membrane, so had those popped which splashed all over nice midwife like an errant water balloon, and mercifully by 2pm I was 10cm and good to go.
Well. Sort of. I was trying to sit up and kneel, but because of all the monitoring and tubes and gawd knows what, it wasn't practical, so I had a good go at bum off edge of bed pushing for the best part of two hours. And the little sod would. Not. Move. I think I got him through a bit in the first ha,f an hour, and apparently my pushing was really good, but it was decided a) my pelvis is just a bit wee, b) my spondy slip actually invades some of my pelvis space, so less room for TT to come through the exit c) tiny tee was back to back with a lovely brow presentation.
Consultant was popping in and out with numerous other people and then turned up with a paedetrician and a trolley full of things I don't ever really want to see again, but was so exhausted was happy to try pretty much anything. This part was a bit scary, because TT was in distress and needed to just come out and it all happened quite fast, some of my memories are a bit hazy, but basically I got put in stirrups, and told I was going to need some help, so I ended up with ventouse. Lots of local and an epidural top up, I pushed while she pulled. Had to have an episiotomy for the ventouse, but actually ended up tearing past it, as once he started to be born, he just whizzed out with no time for stretching 
they plonked him on my chest and he was all squirmy and hot, and happily not too misshapen in the head department after being dragged out with the Dyson. 8lb of little chunk with short legs like his dad.
I cried, Mr tee cried, tiny tee cried, and then I spent 90 minutes being stitched back together again, although the surgeon did say it was the best kind of third degree tear 
and Mr tee said he really took his time (!). I lost about 2.5 pints of blood in the process and the delivery room was a bit like a shark attack, but I was so focused on TT that it all seemed a bit secondary. Time of delivery was 4.26pm, so from waters breaking to then was just under 30 hours. Got carted off to postnatal after a shower, (had help from Mr tee) and had all my tubes and wires taken off, including catheter, and then had a shitload of fluid and antibiotics, Mr tee got sent home which I got a bit upset about, but think I was a bit shellshocked about. Got given paracetamol and ibuprofen and fed tiny tee, thankfully he has been an absolute dream with BF and got the hang of it straightaway. Post natal wasn't much fun, and I had a bit of a shit fit when I was told that I couldn't have stronger pain relief until rounds the following morning, so I am incredibly glad I took some decent painkillers with me. Mr tee came back about 9am and we had to hang around for checks and prescriptions etc until 2, and then went home. I know I was a bit grrrr about Mr tee being unprepared and a bit of a fanny while I was still pregnant, but he was amazing, absolutely flawless, and I am incredibly proud of how he asked lots of questions, spoke for me when I couldn't articulate, and kept his shit together when I was losing mine.
My back pain returned to pre preg niggle level in 2 days, hip and pelvic pain was gone by the time the epidural wore off. No more crutches!
The tearing bit has been a bit of a bummer. It's actually healed a lot better a lot quicker than I feared, and I had everything checked today and told it looked great, I was just being impatient. It doesn't hurt as such, was a bit yow you for the first few days and I sat in many cushions! it's just a bit tight now , but it's felt better every single day, so all good. Psychologically, it's been the biggest hurdle for me, as it was the thing I really wanted to avoid and just had no control over, so have felt a bit emosh about the ol' arts and crafts, but it's getting better and I have some follow ups in a few weeks to make sure it's healed. I have been told, however, that I am not recommended to deliver vaginally again, am prone to long labour, funny shaped pelvis, wonky SIJ etc which I'm okay with. Put it this way, I'd do it again, so it can't have been that bad 
.
Sorry for essay! Tried to give as much detail as u remember, if there's any specifics or questions, then happy to answer, pm/fb etc. I don't really want to leave grads :( sad times!