Here's 'my bit' that I've also put on the post natal thread:
So my take on the whole thing...
It was SOOOOOOO painful!! I remember it being painful last time, but this was something else. I really never want to do it again! I had the two most wonderful birth partners (dh and my chum) who stopped me totally losing it on several occasions, and the most perfect midwife for me, who as chum said, could spot a fast labour when she saw one, and took the time to read my previous notes and believed that this one could be as quick (official time came in at 1hr 45mins).
There were two points where things really sped up - one when dd was taken away for the night at about 2pm, and then once I was admitted to hospital at 5ish. Its as though my body knew it was 'allowed' to progress to the next level (hence 2-7cm in not very long!).
The lowest moment was being told I was only 2cm on arrival at hospital, as the pain was getting unbearable and I was asking for drugs, but policy said I should go home. I later found out the lovely midwife had waited til the head midwife was out of earshot before phoning the ante-natal ward and getting me a bed
Dh and chum were amazing, talking and breathing me through every contraction, letting me lean on them, squeeze them, sit on them, be ever-so-slightly-rude to them! They told me silly stories and jokes, and called me the contractionmaster in reference to that fabulous website someone on here gave us the link to!
Pushing was jolly hard work - with dd my body was doing the pushing and I just went with it, whereas I really pushed for about 20mins yesterday, and have a pile to prove it! Being in the water was amazing as they are totally hands off and let me push when I felt ready - no 'lets check you're 10cm'. It was great having the freedom to move where I wanted and delivering into the water was just wonderful. I was in the best sort of speechless shock when Finn was born and just held him for ages in total wonderment. They let me deliver the placenta in the pool too, which gave me extra time to sit there and just absorb it all.
Chum is uber medical geek and understood what was going on at various points in a way that dh doesn't (and I didn't notice) and gave me really encouraging insights, my favourite being 'the midwife said "pp visible", that means "presenting part visible", i.e. they can see the head, PUSH!' which was exactly what I needed to encourage me to go for it at the stage where you just wanna give up.
Dh and chum also remembered all the things that went wrong last time and took the trouble to remind me that they weren't happening this time, which again was exactly what I needed to hear.
The best bit is that having gone in at 4, I delivered at 6:45, and was at home eating fish and chips at 10pm
Oh, and the fact that dd loves her brother