Ren = I can vouch for the baby hammock..... the Bear did all the research like you and decided it was the best thing. Our DD loved it from the first minute we put her in it, she has been sleeping through the night since she was 10 weeks old, we take it when we go on holidays and she doesn't get disrupted, I can put her down in it wide awake and in five minutes she is asleep - trust me you will love the baby hammock!
In retrospect I was really surprised at all the negative things that people said to me (they were always people with more than one child too what's with that? they thought it was so terrible and did it more than once?) before DD was born. Birth wasn't that bad, I was like you = thought "I'll see how I go" and just took it one contraction at a time.... I only had gas and I had augmentation, was flat on my back and on monitors the whole time. It's really not that bad. and babies are just great. They have tricky moments but they are wonderful a lot of the time. You are going to have a great birth and love being a mum - enjoy!!! On the bright side I was prepared for all these terrible things and it turned out to be great!