Hey all,
Thanks for the replies.
In answer to some of the questions:
My first labour was fairly fast yeah - around 4 hours from the time I woke up in the morning. I woke up to a wet patch on the bed as my waters had broken. This time round the waters didn't break until about 1 minute before crowning started.
In terms of who was with me? Nobody. When my waters broke what I thought was a contraction was actually baby coming. We decided as a couple that hubby should run into hospital reception to get help as I couldn't move and didn't want to have the baby outside. In my first labour it took about 40 minutes from when baby head started showing until actual birth.
He set the stopwatch to keep count of how long he was gone and he was back in less than 2 minutes with midwives and wheelchair. Unfortunately the baby decided to come out in that time. Basically the time of one contraction. It was a tremendously fast birth.
As for the ladies wishing for what I had, yes the fast birth was nice in hindsight, but what I went through was easily the most traumatic experience of my entire life, especially watching helplessly as my baby slapped onto the bloodsoaked pavement at a Bus Stop 50 yards from the hospital entrance. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, let alone any of the girls here.
xxxxx