It was no secret that I didn't particularly enjoy this pregnancy. My body hurt and the days were dragging by so slowly but it was mostly the constant back and pelvic pain that caused me to really not enjoy much of the actual pregnancy. I tried getting my doctors to commit to inducing me on March 23rd starting in November. They never would commit. As the 23rd slowly became closer and closer I started researching natural ways to induce labor. I wasn't willing to drink castor oil because it would taste gross and I had heard that it could make the baby poop while it was still in the womb and that would be bad. So it came down to me drinking raspberry leaf tea and doing lots of deep squats once Thursday arrived (the 22nd). I had had some signs that my body was preparing for labor so I didn't want to take any chances of it happening before Friday. On Wednesday I decided I would drink the castor oil if necessary on Thursday night. desperate times call for desperate measures. Well by 8:00 Thursday night there were no signs of baby after drinking the tea that tasted like dirt all day and doing lots of squats. I was about to leave Krystin's house when she suggested I just go ahead and drink the oil there. I hesitated for a second. I didn't want the other side effects hitting me as I drove home but I decided to go ahead and drink it. She gave me some seltzer water and I tried mixing them and drinking the concoction through a straw but the oil was too thick to really make it so I just got the seltzer water on the first try. I eventually got the oil down and I was glad it was over! Now all I had to do was wait. Briggs and I got home around 9 and I was still feeling fine. I got him to bed and started to clean the house. By 10 it was as if I had never drank any castor oil. I should have been spending the last hour in the bathroom if the junk was working like it should. I decided to drink another larger dose this time. I mixed it with chocolate milk and I couldn't taste it at all! It was perfect! I continued to clean and organize things and wait for something to happen. Well at 1am I gave up and went to bed. Mark had been in bed for hours since he had an all day interview at Vanguard the next morning. At 2:45 I was woken up with some cramping. I was half asleep and was just thinking it was my sore old body. About 5 minutes later I jumped up. I was having contractions!!!!! I was cautiously excited. It was early so I knew I had plenty of time to get this baby out but I also knew that these contractions could stop at any moment. I definitely couldn't sleep now. I was too excited and the contractions were too painful. I downloaded an app so I could time them on the iPad. I am so grateful that I didn't have to do anything other than push a button when they stopped and started. At 6:30 I went into our room to tell Mark the news! He decided that he would just drop off his resume at Vanguard and we would head to the hospital since the doctor's office said we needed to go ahead and get to the hospital (my contractions had been 5 minutes apart since I started timing them at 3). My friend Melanie told me earlier in the week that she would watch Brigham when we went to the hospital so I text her to see if she was ready because the day had come. We dropped the boy off after going by Vanguard an then went to the hospital. It was about 8:30. I was getting nervous that they would send me home. I was sent to triage where after about an hour it was determined that I could be admitted! I am pretty sure the nurse in triage may have said I was slightly more dilated than I actually was to help me get admitted. Later on my labor and delivery nurse checked my dilation and it was less than what I was told in triage. Ha ha. Either way, I am grateful for the nurse getting me admitted! I got my epidural a little after 11 and my water was broken around 1. I was not progressing at all so the pitocin was started. My blood pressure was scary low for my nurse so I had to lay on my side and every hour or so I would switch to the other side. I think this really prolonged my labor since I didn't have the help of gravity at all. At about 5:30 or so I gave a practice push and they said I was definitely ready. The room was prepared and 3 pushes later at 5:57 our sweet 8 pound 15 ounce Aubree-Rose had arrived! I cried this time and had a hard time stopping. I didn't even know why I was crying. The nurse was asking me questions and I could barely speak. Ha. The doctor could not believe that I had such a big baby. Maybe one day when I tell doctors that I have big babies they will listen. I was also even more grateful I had induced myself instead of waiting until my original due date of April 1st!
Now this labor process also gave me one of the most embarrassing moments ever. Since castor oil is a laxative it causes certain things to happen to your body. Well I had used the restroom 2 or 3 times while at home. At about 4pm I began to feel the full laxative effects and my poor nurse had to keep cleaning me up for the next hour and a half. She eventually asked if I had been sick or anyone I had been around because loose stools were not normal. Ha. I said no and I never mentioned the castor oil.
How She Got Her Name
Aubree had been our girls name ever since before we knew Briggs was a boy.
Rose was my grandma's name and when she passed last May Mark suggested we name our daughter after her (if we ever had one).
Once we were at the hospital and we knew we were going to meet our sweet Aubree on March 23rd (my other grandmother's birthday and the whole reason we wanted her born this day) Mark began to think he wanted his grandmother's included also. Their names were Sara Eleanor and Frances Willie Lee. I suggested hyphenating Aubree Rose and then he could do whatever he wanted with the middle name. We decided to combine 2 names and the best combo in our opinion was Ellalee. Aubree-Rose Ellalee Rufty is definitely a mouthful but it is sweet that she is tied to all 4 of her great grandmothers.
On a side note, my mom said she never thought castor oil would work and she didn't actually think I would go into labor Friday!
