Ok so I’ll try to remember everything that happened and recount accurately for anyone who is curious.

I had been drinking red raspberry leaf tea for several days prior. Sweetened with Splenda, it really wasn’t that bad. I also have been suffering from a head cold that would not go away.

My water broke at 7am on 8/11. I called the midwives and they said to come by to get checked out at 10:30am. They tested the fluid and it was positive for amniotic fluid for sure. The midwife wanted to start me on castor oil. She advised we do this because I wasn’t having any contractions and I can only go for 24 hours before they would have to transfer me to the hospital.

(DISCLAIMER: please don’t use castor oil unless under the supervision of your health care provider) She told me to mix 3oz of oil with two scoops of ice cream of a flavor I don’t particularly care for so in case I puke it up, I don’t ruin my favorite flavor. She warned me that it was going to taste like ice cream and lipstick. So, my husband and I stopped at the grocery store and picked up the oil and rainbow sherbet (not my favorite and I figured it would compliment the lipstick flavor of the oil 😉). She advised I drink one “castor oil milkshake”, then take a nap. It went down pretty easily and I slept for 1.5 hours. TMI - Woke up and proceeded to vomit from my butthole many many times. It was only painful because I was wiping and wiping, causing my skin to get rather raw. I took another one at 2:30pm. The thought behind this was that the first castor oil milkshake cleans out your colon, the second one cleans out your uterus.

The next midwife appointment was at 7pm and I had been getting contractions, but they were only 20-30 seconds long and coming every 2-3 mins. They were very mild. I also had felt quite warm from my head cold and it turns out that I was running a low grade fever of 99F-ish. She said if I go to 100, I’d have to transfer so we decided that the best thing to do was to go home, rest and come back at 11pm for a quick IV of antibiotics to see if he can get the fever to go down.

11pm appointment: we do the IV antibiotics and I apparently passed out due to the jab in the vein of my hand. I’ve never fainted before! I’ve gotten close, but that was really weird. Came back right away, and she had me drink a small bottle of grape juice before we left. Decided the next appointment should be 3:30am.

By this time, I finally rest a bit and woke up to regular, moderately strong contractions 2-5 mins apart, lasting 40-55 seconds each. We went in for the 3:30am visit and I was 3cm dilated and we did another round of antibiotics (did not pass out this time). She said we should hang out for a bit as the contractions were getting a bit more regular and intense. She couldn’t admit us until I was farther along and we were debating a hospital transfer due to the fever still hovering in the 99s.

I hung out in the back room for a bit and started really progressing in a short amount of time. The midwife actually heard me from across the building and could tell I was entering the transition period. She checked me again at that point and said I was a solid 7cm, so she decided to admit us and let me birth there at the center.

The next couple hours were a bit of a blur but I remember sweating profusely, working through contractions, having the baby move down and through my pelvis, and feeling an uncontrollable urge to push, which was moving him down and into place. I labored on all fours on the bed, laying on my side, straddling the toilet, standing and squatting and finally when the midwife saw how close I was to the ring of fire, she let me get into the tub.

The tub felt great. It was warm and helped the contractions and pushing. I pushed about three times and his head came out. The ring of fire was not that bad because my husband and I were doing daily perineal massages since week 35. At the advice of the midwife, when I was pushing out his head, she told me to try to do mini pushes. I really did but it was so hard. I pushed his head out and then the next two pushes were his shoulders but he came out like Superman with one arm extended so he tore me a little bit on his exit.

The midwife caught him behind me and handed him to my husband who pulled him out of the water (gently and face down so he wouldn’t get bath water in his nose/mouth) and then handed him to me for immediate skin to skin.

I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my husband who was the best doula ever. He rubbed my back and kept saying encouraging things to me. It helped so much.

We sat in the tub for a bit while the cord stopped pulsating and then my husband cut the cord with the midwife’s help. Husband took the baby and sat in a rocking chair for some skin to skin while I delivered the placenta. The midwife showed me the placenta and explained a bit about it.

Got out of the tub a short while later and began to vigorously shake (normal and to be expected). They sutured me up after some breastfeeding attempts. Archer is tongue tied, so this might be a little challenging for a while. Ate a huge piece of homemade lasagna that my mom dropped off and drank a lot of fluids before trying to use the bathroom. The midwives wanted to make sure I could urinate and visit the bathroom without fainting before they let us go home.

Archer was born at 6:28am the following morning. 8lbs, 5oz, 21.5” long. We were in the car and home by 10am. He is perfect and squishy and we couldn’t be happier! 💜💜💜