Castor Oil... Yuck!

Earlier in the day yesterday, Sarah (my midwife) had given me a call, and explained that if Sydney had had shoulder dystocia, we might need to consider giving birth to this baby (since he/she is measuring rather large) in the hospital. However, we would meet and discuss all of our options and all of the risks involved later that afternoon. So we met yesterday at 4pm at the clinic. Sarah was at that point able to go over Sydney's birth chart. I've also watched Sydney's birth video time and time again over these past couple of years and more so these past few months, and this was helpful in remembering exactly what happened at her birth. She asked me what I remembered happening, and I told her that according to Sydney's birth video... I was pushing on my side (but kind of on my back too), and Sydney's head came out, but for a few minutes she was stuck there. Sarah asked me how many minutes, and I said "maybe 3 or 4"? I couldn't remember exactly how much time. I told her that after that in the birth video, she tells her team to help get me on my hands and knees, and as soon as I got in that position, Sydney slid right out. Sarah's whole countenance changed with this news. She said, "Oh well THAT'S not shoulder dystocia. If she came out right away after changing your position, then that just means that you weren't in a good position to begin with for pushing a baby out." She then looked over Sydney's chart, and was able to confirm what I'd told her. So this was great news, because it meant that I could still safely deliver this baby at home! She also decided to (after much discussion) go with a due date for this baby of August 15th. (This means that I'm now 13 days overdue, and we need to get this baby born!)

So this morning we did the plan (the one that she'd come up with yesterday after realizing I could have a home birth). David massaged castor oil onto my belly, and then I drank 2oz of castor oil at 10:30am. I'd planned on taking it at around 8am, but it just took that long to get myself to down it. I sure hope it does it's thing, and kick-starts my uterus into action! It worked with Sydney, and my labor started about 17.5 hours after taking the nasty stuff. So... maybe we'll get to meet our baby by tomorrow! But I've got my work cut out for me first...