Can't comment on the dogs as we are not pet owners, but I do remember being surprised by how much space the midwives take up with all their stuff, ours brought in little suitcases! You will have 2 midwives with you, plus DH and you will want space to walk around freely, use your ball etc. Are you planning a water birth? If so, the pool takes up a lot of space too. And the midwives are very fussy about the water temperature - constantly asking DH to go to the kitchen and turn on the appropriate tap to get the temp just right. So with DH constantly going back and forth to the kitchen plus the pipes going from the taps to the pool I guess dogs will just get in the way and be confused as to what's going on. I would say confine them to one room or the garden and try to arrange a sitter who can take them away?
Again, if you have a pool, the clean up job is huge. The midwives don't do this and it took DH ages to empty it, clean it and pack it away. But if you're not having a pool then I don't think there will be too much mess. I just asked around friends and family to raid their airing cupboards and donate any old towels they didn't want. Have some set aside for you and keep some aside for the baby. You will need a swing bin or something too so the midwives can throw stuff away. They'll provide the bin liners though and take the bags away with them. So really you'll just have the towels and sheets to get rid of afterwards. We rearranged our lounge furniture too but that doesn't take long to put back to normal.
We went to B and Q and bought a dust sheet. We covered the sofa with it, then went to a charity shop and bought an king size bed sheet to put over the dust sheet (the dust sheet is plastic) and that was just fine. I gave birth in the pool, then got out and lay on the sofa and was perfectly comfortable. I bled a lot due to a tear but it didn't spoil the sofa at all. We have laminate flooring so it didn't matter too much if anything got on there but we did have a plastic liner down beneath the pool. If you have a carpet you don't want spoiling I would put something on it that you won't slip on, like a tarpaulin or something.
I would keep snacks and cold drinks close by, but you might not feel like eating, I didn't. I drank a lot of water though, and really regret not buying straws! It sounds silly but sipping from a cup was awkward. We also weren't organised enough to put food in the kitchen for the midwives so DH ended up making tea and toast for them whilst I was in labour. It would've been better if we just had some sandwiches or something they could go and get whenever they wanted.
Re positions, yeah just do whatever is comfortable. I thought a bath would be great, but actually found it very uncomfortable so didn't stay in long. I also had a yoga ball and mat, and had planned on doing moves I'd learned in my pregnancy yoga class but in the end I didn't! You just don't know how you're going to feel. I found leaning on DH very good, and at one point I stacked up all the cushions on one end of the sofa and hunched over them, that was good too. But your body will tell you what to do, just go with the flow. Once I was in the pool I hung over the edge literally for hours. When you're in labour they will ask to check how far dilated you are, so have a think about where you would want that to happen. The best place is in bed as it is easier for them to get inside, but I did find it very hard getting up the stairs so I only let them check me twice then once I was in the pool that was it. If you have any way of making an area where you can lie comfortably and they can sit by you easily enough to do a proper examination then that's worth considering. My SIL has a chaise long in her lounge, that would've been perfect
Oh and we had no complaints from the neighbours! In fact ours had building work going on and DH went round there and asked them to keep the noise down, haha
Good luck with it, hope you get the birth you want x
Good luck for the meeting x
