All I wanted was to have my baby before my 42 weeks we up. My due date was October 7, 2007, but my little bundle of joy just wasn’t ready to come out and see the world yet. Since I missed my due date, one of our midwives, Roberta, suggested we take castor oil to start contractions; just to speed things along. She said that if it doesn’t start any contractions, she asked if I would be willing to take it again. I told her that I would because all I wanted was my baby. The first time wasn’t strong enough to start any powerful contractions. Since that didn’t work and only being 2 cm dilated, our other Midwife, Kel suggested that I take it again on Friday October 19th ( at this point, I’m 12 days overdue). On Friday, I took the first dosage and nothing happened. When my husband came home, he was encouraging me to finish the rest of the oil (this stuff is really gross) Of course I didn’t want to and as I was pleading not to finish the rest off, I felt a pop from within and then fluid leaking, my water broke! We called midwife Kel and we went down to the birth center around 8pm. I had a lot of amniotic fluid so you could imagine it took awhile to unload. My contractions became stronger shortly after my water broke. I picked up my bedroom and sat hand in hand with my husband the whole time going through my powerful back labor pains. Boy, did they burn! After 2am I was dilated to 4cm. My husband and I were up for awhile without any sleep, all I wanted was for my baby to come and go to bed. Around 6:45 am, my body started pushing during each contraction. I told midwife Kel and she started my bath tub and we just waited. My delivery only lasted 45 minutes and it was a relief when I gave my final push. But during my pushing, Kel held a mirror up so I could see my baby’s head; it was a great focus and to have my best friend (my husband) right there next to me the whole time. After I delivered, Kel put my baby on my chest and I couldn’t believe just how big my baby was. I asked my husband what we had and he said, “A girl.” I was so excited. Labor 13 hrs. Lillian. 8lbs, 13oz. 22 inches. Born October 20, 2007 @ 7:14am.
