DD is called Sarah. A bit more info, just because I love telling the story . We didn't get any kind of home birth pack, the mw just brought things with her on the day. MW appointments were a bit chaotic - there were so many babies due at the same time that my "38 week" check was set on the due date - and she arrived at 39 weeks, so never got to it! In fact the MW had predicted at about 30 weeks that the baby would be a girl and would come a week early and I'd have a very easy labour, so she was completely right!
We had a doula, Maddie, who was utterly brilliant and really gave me lots of confidence. I sent DH off to work as usual at 8.30 because we both expected that everything would be fairly slow and steady, he even said "I reckon it will be some time early tomorrow morning" ! So when things started to speed up, I called Maddie and she came over to give me a bit of encouragement. She realised things were really going pretty fast, so called DH and told him "it would be a good idea if you could come home soon"! There was none of the time to relax in between contractions, set up my nice cosy space or anything like that, just a case of baby's on the way now
Midwife and he arrived at about the same time, and set to getting the pool up and filled while Maddie kept me going through the contractions. It turned out that the boiler gave out halfway even though we'd just had it checked over so there were lots of kettles and pans on the hob, I had no idea about this until afterwards!
I'd been labouring out of the pool but got in as soon as possible, it didn't help with the contractions so much as made it much easier for me to move around and find positions that were more comfortable in between the contractions. Never thought I'd be so relaxed about stripping off in the middle of the living room in front of a couple of strangers! Things went fairly steadily from there, the contractions changed to a very definite pushing sensation and Maddie and the MW both helped me just let my body take over. I started on G&A about halfway through but by then it was clearly far too late as it made very klittle difference, just gave me something to focus on.
Once she came out, it took a while for the placenta to appear but the MW waited til the cord stopped pulsing before cutting and passing her to DH for a cuddle. In the end everything was absolutely fine down below, which I put down to being encouraged to relax as much as possible during the pushing - in yoga we'd practiced tightening and relaxing the pelvic floor which really really helped, and also blowing raspberries as per Ina May!
The one bit of essential advice I'd give to everyone waiting is EAT SOMETHING! I didn't manage any breakfast, got fed a few mouthfuls of bread, and then realised once it came to about 4pm that I'd not eaten anything proper since the previous evening and was absolutely ravenous.
Good luck everyone!