Pingus hurray for upside down baby! Hope your blood pressure starts behaving itself.
Congratulations Kitkat and Butterfly! I am enjoying reading all the updates and birth stories while endlessly bfing on the sofa (my milk has come in and he's making the most of it!) so thought I would contribute my own, which was really everything I could have hoped for.
I was thoroughly fed up on Sunday morning as I'd been sure I would have the baby in September and failed to do so! I started to feel mild contractions at midday (but had these on and off for a week so I wasn't convinced they were real). Sat down to a nice family lunch during which they continued every 5 minutes and I began to find it uncomfortable to sit down. We pottered for a bit, I had a shower and then quickly scoffed some of the nice cake DH had bought from the bakery so I wouldn't miss out (in previous labours I couldn't eat a thing once labour was in full swing, although weirdly this time I was hungry throughout). The contractions were getting stronger and closer until they were about 3 minutes apart, so I thought 'yep this is definitely it'! so we got the room and pool set up, gave the kids some new story and sticker books to keep them busy and they were in and out of the room for a while (DS1 laughed at me for making funny noises during contractions but was very sweet holding my hand and passing me my water bottle). This bit was all very manageable and lasted about 3 hours, although I couldn't bear to sit /kneel down and had to stand and move all the time (most comfortable was standing leaning on DH's shoulders). We called the midwife at 3ish to ask her to come and check progress (I still wasn't sure it was doing much as the pain was very manageable at this point). At 3.45 she hadn't arrived yet, kids had just gone upstairs to watch TV when I had a strong contraction and my waters went. Immediately things got intense and very painful so I got in the birth pool and felt the urge to push straightaway. Midwife luckily arrived a few minutes later, I had 5 or so contractions and at 16.02 he was born in the pool. This last bit was really intense as the pain didn't really ease between contractions, more so than my previous labours, but was over in under 15 minutes so can't complain! Baby didn't cry at first and just blinked up at me, then a slightly worrying moment where the midwife had to encourage him to spit up some gunk as he wasn't breathing, but only momentary then he gave one big cry and was fine. DH called the kids who ran downstairs to see us (still sat in the pool), so it must have been less than 5 minutes after the birth they got to meet their brother and were both so excited, it was really lovely! I got out of the pool to deliver the placenta and DS1 cut the cord then DS3(!) latched on and had a nice long feed while we all had a family cuddle on the sofa. After the slightly annoying week of build up it was all over and done with in 4 hours, conveniently between lunch and dinner time on Sunday afternoon! No stitching required either.
I know how very lucky I am to have had such a good birth experience but posted in the hope it helps others still waiting to feel positive! Fingers crossed for more babies tonight / tomorrow.