Preparing for a home birth...

I have bitten the bullet and decided to prepare for baby number 3 with a home birth kit, JUST IN CASE we are snowed in / there is ice on the roads / it takes too long for our emergency childcare to arrive (who we'd need to sleep in the house and look after the boys).

In case anyone is wondering what arrives with a home birth kit, here it is!  (Well, this is part of it).  Top photo shows a baby resuss kit in blue sitting on top of a red box which is full of latex gloves, forceps, spatulas, plastic sheeting and all sorts of things I'd rather not think about.  The bottom photo shows 4 mini cans of gas and air - providing a total of 1 hour's pain relief...not that much.

There is also a small green medical pack which has to be stored out of reach of the children which has medication / syringes in, as well as baby weighing scales which the cat has adopted as her new bed.

I'm only 37 and a half weeks preganant so a home birth isn't a real option until I get to 38 weeks (you have to go into hospital regardless of the fact the kit is here at home), so here's hoping I can hold out until the 2nd Jan 2014.  My due date isn't until mid January so theoretically I have time.

This being my last pregnancy, I am wierdly ok about still being pregnant at this late stage.  Normally by now I am desperate to get the baby out, feeling majorly hormonal and stuffing my face with pineapple and curry.  But it has been so relaxed over Christmas with Hugo being off work and my eye healing nicely and I'd be quite happy to stay pregnant for another two weeks or so (I think...I reserve the right to change my mind).  My only signs of impending birth are increasingly frequent braxton hicks which last night turned fairly painful, but eased off again over night...I'm all up for a long 'latent' phase if it means a short and efficient active labour, so cross your fingers for me!  Hopefully one of my next updates will be a story of a successful delivery in front of the wood burning stove followed by a glass of champagne and a hot bubble bath.  We shall see.