Sounds like a big group hug is required - lots of sympathies to everyone still waiting for babies. It's so crap.
While I have 10 mins (G is asleep before evening feeding for ages in the evening) I have written my birth story. I'm a bit anxious it's the wrong thing to post, so I hope you don't think it's insensitive when lots of people are waiting to have their LOs are are getting really fed up.
After my sweep on Thursday afternoon with a really un-favourable cervix, I had resigned myself to thinking that this LO would not arrive for at least a week, following the trend of 2DC being 12 days over due date. So got up at 6.30am with the kids and did the normal Saturday morning stuff... TV, snacks, homework etc. I got a few regular BH twinges in the morning but no different to the previous few weeks. I also had a little show but knew that didn't mean much.
As a 'fed up of being overdue' treat we decided to go for lunch at a Japanese for lunch, so bundled the kids in to the car at 12 and proceeded to drive there, except I got 3 painful contractions that I needed to breathe through in the 1st 5 miles! I said that I wanted to go home and have a bath to see what happened, so we turned around, came home via Dominos pizza (!) and had some pizza for lunch. For this time I was getting regular ctx every 5 mins or so for a minute that I was needing to lean over the counter and breathe through (eating pizza in between, obviously )! It looked like things were really starting up, so DH called our friend and asked her to come over and take the DC to the park so that we could have some time and see what was happening. She turned up and whisked them away, and meanwhile they were getting thick and fast at every 2 mins for a minute each and I was needing to really breathe to get through them. So we called the MW who got here at 2pm.
The MW asked lots of questions about my pregnancy, previous labours and what I would like to do for this birth. She then offered a VE to see what was going on, so we went upstairs to my bedroom for this. I was 2-3cms (yay!), but the ctx had really slowed down. She suggested that she leave us until I was really feeling the ctx and she would be back. As she left, the ctx completely stopped, and I was gutted. But we used the time to set up the birthing pool and I finished making the jaffacakecakecake (!). We also called my parents to ask if they could come up and look after the DC if it all kicked off again. I was tired after all the activity of the day, so I went to bed for a nap at about 4pm. Except the ctx came back, much more intensively. So I went downstairs again to lean over my birthing ball and breathe through them whilst DH rubbed my back (and watched the rugby!). At about 5pm we called the MW again and started to fill the pool. My parents turned up and took the kids out for tea. From here on it, it's a bit of a blur ! DC and MW both turned up about 7pm ish by which time I wanted G&A because ctx lasted about 2 mins with about 30 seconds break. Owch. I went to bedroom to be examined again (6cm - yay!) whilst DH put kids to bed, and they were so tired they went straight to sleep. I went in the pool at about 8pm, which was a really lovely experience - the water was so warm and I felt I could move myself into a much more comfortable position. I was leaning over the side of the pool and breathing in the G&A (wonderful stuff). It got much more intense at this point. I relaxed through it all, waters broke in the pool at 8.50pm, and after breathing very deeply (and NO pushing) baby Gethin turned up at 9pm. It was very surreal (TMI alert) I felt his head come out, and then he turned around and came out with the next ctx. The relief was instant and wonderful . I scooped him out of the pool, and handed him to DH, who cut the cord because I was having a managed 3rd stage. The MWs helped me out of the pool and I delivered a 5lb placenta within about 5 minutes, a quick check that no stitches required. Then into a bath robe, sat down and had a cup of tea cuddling Gethin. Bliss !
We all went to bed at 10pm and DC came into the bedroom at 6am when they heard their Brother crying, so we all had a lovely big cuddle in bed. The best thing ever !