relle, your plan to wait until 9cm dilated sounds great - i hope it all works out for you!! i'm hoping to have my baby at home in the shower before i get a chance to even make it into the car!! i've got my fingers crossed for a 5 min labour from start to finish - highly probable of course, especially given that it's my first - he he he!!
i reckon it will be hard for me to convince my DH that it's ok to stay at home during the early stages of labour... as soon as there is anything even remotely contraction-like he'll be trying to bundle me off into the car (on a tarpaulin of course so that i don't ruin the leather seats!!)...
i had a dream last night that my DH sat reading the sport section of the newspaper throughout my labour, and my mum was at my side, bossing me about and pushing and pulling at the baby to try and get it out (it was breech, and the bum and legs came out, but the head took some persuasion!!)... i have been having all sorts of funny dreams.. in my dream last night, the baby also ended up being a boy, not a girl when it came out! i wasn't disappointed at all (he was SO cute), but i was really annoyed with myself for spending so much money on pink stuff, and not keeping my receipts!! ha ha!!
no wonder i'm waking up so tired in the morning with all of this activity in my dreams!!