Cupcake, your LO is gorgeous!!!
Welcome to all the new girls.
And here's my belated birth story. It's a long one!
My waters (later learned it was my hindwaters) broke at 3:30pm on Wednesday, and I saw that they were green and knew what that meant. My midwife wasn't on that day, so I rang labour ward to get in touch with the on-call community midwife for me. They did and rang me back and said that they wanted me to come in first. Having looked after lots of babies on NICU who had meconium aspiration and knowing the other problems associated, I was happy to get checked over.
I went in and was put on a CTG, which showed we were both fine. A registrar examined me, said I was 2cm and that my forewaters were intact. She said they wanted to admit me to labour ward, break my water and start oxytocin. I said I'd prefer to go home and have a midwife monitor his heartrate with a doppler, which the registrar really wasn't happy with. I didn't push on that more, knowing this was worrying my husband. I asked if I could give birth on the birth centre, and she said that I couldn't due to policy re: meconium liquor. She then went into all the issues associated with meconium liquor, at which point I notified her that I was very aware due to my occupation - she stopped speaking to me like an idiot then.
I said that I would go onto labour ward, as I understand the concerns only too well. However, I wanted only intermittent CTG monitoring, as I wanted to try to mobilise. I gave consent for my waters to be broken but said that I then wanted to see how I progressed on my own, as I think it's stupid to augment a labour that you already have concerns re: baby's distress. She tried to say that the oxytocin would be started slowly and would not necessarily distress the baby. I insisted that my body be given the chance to labour on it's own.
In the end, my labour went very quickly, undoubtedly due to my own history (mother was a very quick labourer), broken waters and my body trying to expel the meconium. I delivered at 11:20pm (under 8 hours from my hindwaters breaking at home) with my TENS and some G&A (I didn't use it until 6cm and then kept throwing it away after the peak of the contraction, as I couldn't concentrate to use it effectively [and I don't think it did that much anyway]). NO oxytocin! I ended up with a grade 1 inner labial graze/tear that didn't need suturing. I didn't get my delayed cord clamping due to what ended up being grade 3 meconium, as they needed to ensure that he didn't aspirate the thick meconium*. But I got a cuddle as soon as the paediatrician said he was ok (pretty quick), and I had my physiological 3rd stage (25min). Considering the circumstances, I was pretty happy, as I got most things my way!
They have a policy of doing observations on the baby (in cases of meconium liquor) for 12 hours post delivery. The paediatrician also wanted to review him before we left. I asked for a private room on postnatal ward, as I would've much rather been at home. I had a private room in the end, but observations were only done on the baby twice overnight (it was supposed to be one hourly, then two hourly) and not at all during the day. The paediatrician reviewed him at around 1pm and was happy with him. I asked a midwifery assistant afterwards when we'd be going home, as the 12 hours had lapsed and he'd been reviewed, and she said she'd find out for me. Another girl came back and said that she hadn't realised that she was supposed to be doing meconium observations, so she would need to do those before we left, so she would need to do the ones she'd missed and that it'd likely be early evening before we were able to go home. I refused and said this was ridiculous. Regardless of whether she'd done the observations, the 12 hours had already passed; and it was obvious that he was fine, and the paediatrician who'd seen him hadn't found any issues. She needed to go discuss this with the midwife in charge who came to speak to me. They couldn't get in touch with the paediatricians whose "permission" they needed to not do the meconium observations over and let us go. I said then that I would discharge us myself and that I was sure the paediatricians would agree with me and would agree that a mother who looks after ill newborns for a living would be able to do the same for her own. Arrangements were made for me to sign a consent form for this and for my discharge paperwork to be completed immediately. In the meantime, a paediatrician did show up and said that it was obviously fine for us to go, as there'd been no problems noted, regardless of observations not being recorded consistently (I hate how some people approach midwifery and nursing with the attitude that "this isn't how it's done" instead of common sense!).
So, I ended up being in hospital 24 hours in total. We're getting on well with establishing breastfeeding, apart from me panicking that he wasn't latching properly and perhaps not getting enough milk and making my nipples sore when it was obvious he was, as he was coming off the breast and sleeping. I find it quite funny how I can help mothers every day at work on the NICU with breastfeeding issues, but it's a completely different story when you're the new mum! I actually raided my home birth kit at one point to get some syringes to draw up some colostrum as I hand expressed it just to make sure he actually got something!
Sorry for the novel, but I thought I'd share! I still hope to have a home birth one day (hopefully a water birth!), so I hope to still hang around the group if that's ok!
*Edited to add: I'm actually annoyed, looking back, that they didn't delay cord clamping. There was no reason they couldn't have left it intact and examined him on my tummy/chest and ascertain whether clamping and resuscitation was needed. His Apgars were 9 at 1 minute, so it could've been left intact. I also will refuse internal exams in the future, as conflicting exams set me back mentally and nearly cost me my natural birth, as I was in dead beetle position, ultimately asking for an epidural that I thankfully never got and had my pushing directed.
to 
now too!! 
which means we have a new home for our homebirth!! It's much better than our current place, 3 beds so plenty of room for all 4 of us when LO arrives, and plenty of room for my pool. It also means I can get my ass away from the antenatal midwife who hates me at my current surgery, because I will be moving into a different area 
happy tears though, not sad. Anyway, once I had sorted my blubbering out, the video went on to say that the midwives provide the pool for you (!!!) and all you have to do is buy a new liner for the next person to use (!!!) I can't believe this is true, but if so, it will help so so so much with the planning of this adventure! Can't wait to start planning things more seriously when we move out!! 
I have been a bit carried away with all this homebirth stuff this week. x x 
It's a pain in the bum though because I started reading it in the bookstore and was hoping to have it pretty quick so I could continue!! 
