The birth of our beautiful daughter, Galilee was tied for the best day ever with the birth of her brother Leon and in order to paint the full picture of how the day went, we have to go back a few years to his birth. When I was pregnant with Leon, I found out at 37 weeks that he was breech and our doctor recommended we scheduled a csection. I was devastated because I had always wanted a natural birth and the idea of a csection was just so heartbreaking. But after exploring other options and getting assurance from my doctor that they do VBAC's (vaginal birth after cesarean) I begrudgingly agreed to the scheduled csection and Leon was born two weeks later.
When I was pregnant with Galilee we planned from the start to attempt a VBAC. I was so excited at every appointment when they told me she was head down. As we got closer to the date they told me we needed to schedule a csection for 41 weeks in the event my body didn't naturally go into labor because the risks of uterine rupture increase after that point. So we scheduled for July 31.
Starting at 37 weeks, I tried EVERYTHING to naturally induce labor. I ate whole pineapples, drank red raspberry leaf tea by the gallon, used evening primrose oil, ate massive amounts of eggplant parmesean (no complaints there!), bounced on a birthing ball, went on long walks, drank a glass of red wine, ate spicy foods, tried pumping, and several other highly recommended techniques to naturally induce labor that I wont go into detail with here. But alas, nothing worked. As the weeks crept by and I passed my due date I started to get really worried that my body wouldn't go into labor in time and all my dreams of a natural birth would fly out the window. I decided that as a last resort, I would drink castor oil the day before my scheduled csection as a last ditch effort. Castor oil has been used by midwives and doctors to induce labor for centuries. In fact it was used by hospitals in the early 1900s to induce labor until the drug pitocin was developed. So I hoped that this method would work for me if the time came.
Saturday July 29th arrived and thus far no signs of labor. Irregular braxton hicks contractions continued as they had for weeks. I got recommendations from friends and family of what to try before the dreaded castor oil and Townsend's aunt told me to try galloping. Yes galloping. So I galloped around the house all evening and indeed, I started having more regular contractions, this time with slight back discomfort. I started to get excited because they were 8-10 minutes apart and I thought ok maybe tonight is the night!?? But I went to sleep at 11 thinking maybe I would wake up several hours later with intense contractions, nope. Woke up Sunday morning back to normal. So operation castor oil began.
7:30am: I mixed 1 1/2 tablespoons of the smelly oil with half a cup of orange juice, blended it in the blender, and then chugged it while plugging my nose.
8am: I was having mild contractions 5 minutes apart
9:30am: Contractions intensified and my back was killing me
9:45am: Intensity continued and contractions were now 3 minutes apart
10:00am: TOWNSEND WE NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!! Townsend: wait, your moms not here, we were going to labor at home for a while I thought. Me: CHANGE OF PLANS! Townsend: Can I take a shower first? Me: NO!
11:00am: Arrive to the hospital
1:00pm: Epidural is given at 5cm, 100% effaced after blacking out from back labor.
2:30pm: 10cm dialated, pushing begins
2:45pm: Galilee Grace is born!
We were so amazed at how fast everything happened. It was a whirlwind of a day and we just could not believe we were staring at our beautiful baby girl who we had been waiting to meet for so long. About an hour or two later (lets be honest its a blur so I really don't know when it was) Leon arrived to meet his baby sister! He was so curious to see what she looked like. He was also very curious about my belly and wanted to inspect it to see if it was still big (yes it was still big but much smaller so he believed she was out).
After we had some time to introduce Leon to Galilee, we invited the rest of the grandparents in and he individually brought each person over to see his sister. He would have them hold her and give her kisses, it was the cutest thing ever! We have been so blessed by this precious miracle!
