Well, we actually didn’t make it to our hospital with our doctor. We made it to a hospital nearby. But anywhoo, here’s the long story.

This was my second pregnancy, my little girl is 1.5 years old. She came 4 days early so I was hoping this one might come even sooner. At 39.5 weeks, I still had no baby. It was so discouraging. I was sad and overwhelmed by guilt that I couldn’t be a more active mother to my little girl because I was in pain and/or tired. I would never wish to not be pregnant because I love my little new addition, but I will say that I wish I waited. I know that there is a silver lining and that they will one day have each other to play and bond with. Just waiting for it.. Come on, time.. FLY!

I was out grocery shopping with my SO and daughter. Trying to walk the baby out and keep moving.. I sort of non-accidentally ran across the aisle with the castor oil and just sort of started lazily gathering all the items needed to make a midwives brew. I swear it was like I was in a twilight zone. I was hypnotized by the thought of having baby out. I saw some recipes, read some testimonials, watched some YouTube videos.. didn’t really know what I was doing AT ALL. My SO saw me and knew my plan and he kept quiet but looked at me with worried eyes. We got home and he started brewing the hot water for the tea immediately. So, yea. We did it. It tasted chalky, & the worst part is the end because you are over the taste, full, and it’s just hard to get down. Finished the mixture around 9pm. No poop, minor upset stomach. Woke up at 1am from strong-ish contractions. SO couldn’t sleep, he was up watching a movie on the couch waiting for me to say it’s time. I told him that I could feel them and they weren’t too bad so he told the in-laws to get dressed and slowly head over. I hopped in the shower. Soon, I can’t even stand up during the contractions. SO tells in-laws to hurry it up. They get to our place at 2am to watch our 1.5 year old. We leave the house at 2:09am (our door cam caught us leaving so we knew the exact time). Heading down to the highway (we live in the mountains kind of, takes about 10 mins to get down to normal streets) I feel the contractions getting worse and worse and soon I can’t even function. I’m yelling from the pain. Actually, it was more like a holler-moan-whine mixed together. Anyway, it was a noise he had never heard from me and he didn’t know what to make of it. I think maybe he thought I was over exaggerating because he kept telling me that I could make it and I could do it. I mean, I get that he was trying to be motivational but my contractions weren’t listening to his motivational speeches. We are on the highway and our hospital is about 15 minutes away but there is a closer one that we toured but didn’t like because it’s in an upscale neighborhood and everyone there had sticks up their butt and their noses in the air. I’m too down to earth for that nonsense. However, I demanded we detour to that hospital because my body was telling me that we weren’t going to make it. I could swear in the car I was beginning to feel the urge to push. We get to the ER.. I was surprisingly able to walk to the door. The nice security guard asked if I needed a wheel chair and I managed to calmly respond “I don’t know” then a major contraction took over my body. SO caught me before I hit the floor and put me in a wheelchair. I couldn’t even sit down, the people in the ER were yelling at me to please sit but it was too painful. I’m yelling that the baby is coming and they are yelling that I have to fully sit down so they can get me to a room. They take off and I’m only half sitting because it’s just too much. Getting up to a room in L&D; was a big ass blur. I remember being passed from nurse to nurse and people smiling around me... I get that everyone was happy that a baby was coming but I was NOT happy in that exact moment... and then I yelled “it burns!!!” That’s when shit got real. I literally was thrown into a bed and had my pants ripped off. The nurse shoved her hand in my vagina (oooouch) and I pushed her away (poor thing.. I hate to be THAT crazy difficult patient ) but she told me I was 10. I was hysterical, I was begging for an epidural, drugs, anesthesia... anything! The on-call doctor ran in and I was yelling that I have to push and she just says “hold onto your legs and go for it” and I pushed half screaming, half holding my breath. I can feel everything. I felt my water break and all the poop I had inside my intestines fly out (ya, I felt the poop). Then, I felt her head pop out. Right after I instinctively did another big push and I could feel the rest of her body come out, which felt like noodles. They put her on top of me right away and I was literally in shock about what just happened to me. Soon, I pushed out the placenta. It was like it was out of a movie or something. Didn’t have time for an IV or anything (which sucked because they poked me in my thigh instead and that freakin hurt). Still had my shirt on, and my sweater was still under me. If we would have tried to make it to my hospital of choice, I would have had baby in the car. We left our house at 2:09am and had our girl 20mins later. Baby girl Maquiya was born at 2:29am 4/26/18 20in 7lbs 8oz

I was 39.6 weeks and I have no idea if I was dilated or effaced. Will I use midwives brew next time? No. Did I enjoy my all natural birth? No. It was terrible. I could feel everything. How was it in comparison to my first? Much worse the second time, first labor was 19 hours but I had an epidural and that thing was awesome. Bottom line: I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY CASTOR OIL ANYTHING!

We don’t have many cool labor photos but I’ll post more of baby if I can get to them