It was finally my turn!!

I was a few days shy of being 40 weeks on Wednesday, September 6th, and had been having prodromal labor daily since 32 weeks. I'd had my checkup with our midwife, she gave me a recipe for castor oil to help get things going. That night we filled up the birth pool, just in case, and around 8pm I tried drinking the chocolate milkshake with castor oil... then threw it up almost immediately after finishing it. So I sat in bed watching tv thinking my prodromal labor would never become the real thing. My husband convinced me around 10pm to try castor oil again, but this time in the form of a strawberry daiquiri. I was still sick to my stomach from the milkshake and couldn't drink more than a few sips of it. I'd had 2 small bowel movements, but they weren't out of the ordinary, and I assumed since I'd thrown up all of the milkshake that I didn't have enough castor oil in me for that to be the cause. By 11pm I was on my yoga ball having regular strong contractions, more intense than the ones I'd been having earlier in the night. I still wasn't convinced it was the real thing because my prodromal labor could be very strong and painful, too. It finally got to the point where I was having to breath heavily through each contraction. Around 2am I was in a lot of pain, and my husband suggested we call the midwife. I cried because I was so afraid it wasn't the real thing, after thinking so many times that it was, when it wasn't. Hubby finally convinced me to call her just before 3am. She didn't think it was real, but after about 10 minutes of talking she decided to come over. She arrived at 3:30am, unloaded all her equipment then checked me. I was still on my yoga ball, where she tried to listen to baby's heartbeat. She was getting a terrible heart rate and quickly made me change position, and his heart rate significantly improved. Then she checked my cervix and told me I was only 4cm, at which point I almost burst into tears. She also said my cervix was too far posterior, and that's why things were taking so long, because it couldn't get around baby's head. So she showed me how to lay on my side with my leg over my body pillow to help my cervix move anterior. That position made my contractions so much worse. The other midwife arrived around 4am, and tried cheering me up by telling me how skinny I looked. The head midwife informed us that we needed to settle in for the long haul because of the location of my cervix, and I was so scared that I wouldn't be able to last with that much pain. I was moaning and crying with each contraction, and I didn't think I could take another one. I was throwing up often because of the pain, but Hubby was right there telling me I could do it every time I said I couldn't. He was my rock. Around 7:40am I told Hubby I felt like I was going to need to start pushing soon, so he went to get the midwives. The head midwife came in and checked me, I was only 7cm, and my cervix was still not as anterior as it need to be. I cried. It had been so long, and I was in so much pain. I went to use the bathroom before laying back down, and when I sat down, I had a contraction, then immediately another, then another. I yelled for Hubby, the pressure was so intense. I told him I needed to push, but I couldn't get up. He grabbed my arm and helped me up. By the time we got to his sink, I couldn't walk anymore, and had a hard time standing. The pressure was so strong that I had a hard time not pushing. I kept saying I needed to push but the midwife just shook her head and told me to get back in the bed, but I couldn't move. Finally, I yelled that I needed to push and my body just started pushing. Everyone rushed to help me in the birth tub, by the next push, my baby's head was mostly all the way out, and he was still in the sack. I pushed 2 more times and I was able to pull him up out of the water and met my sweet baby boy at 8:15am. All 10lbs of him. I still can't believe that happened almost a week ago now, but I'm so glad we chose to have him at home. It was the most amazing experience, even being our third baby. I would do it again in a heartbeat.