I decided to write about my fourth child. Usually with each prior birth, I went over my due date by a few days to a week. I had decided that was not happening with this one!

With this pregnancy, I had "practice contractions" for about three months before the baby actually came. My doctor had tried to strip my membranes and it did absolutely nothing.

It was Memorial Day weekend and I was miserable. My husband and I brought the herd to a picnic and I remember thinking, "I cannot handle walking like this anymore!" It was so hot and I was so swollen. And with three other little ones under age 6, I was so tired!

On the way home, I had my husband stop at Wal-Mart, and I ran (at 9 months pregnant, you know that's a figure of speech!) in and bought a small bottle of castor oil. I'd never tried it before, and was curious as to what would happen.

When we got home, my husband grilled some corn-on-the-cob, and I had a few bites. Then I drank about a fourth cup of the oil chased down with some orange soda. I didn't want to eat anything after that. The oil left a horrible taste in my mouth. I decided to go to sleep and wait.

I woke up at about 9:30 p.m. with some horribly explosive diarrhea! Whoever gave me the idea to drink castor oil forgot to tell me about that part. Every half hour or so I would be running to the bathroom and decided that I would never again try to make myself go into labor! I would sleep between these trips to the bathroom.

By 2:30 a.m. I decided that maybe I was in labor, so I called my mother to come and stay with the kids. I woke up my husband and he took one look at me and said, "Oh no, let's leave right now." I guess with every stomach cramp I was having with the diarrhea, I must have been contracting too. I did convince him to wait until my mother arrived to take care of the other children. But all the way to the hospital he kept trying to pull over and call an ambulance.

When we got there they put me in triage and I had to wait for a resident to come and check me. When she came in I was throwing up the little corn I ate, and she asked if I had the flu. I don't think she had ever attended a birth before, and they were going to use me to teach her.

She checked me and told me I was 4 centimeters dilated so I could stay for a while and see what happened. I was so mad; there was no way I could only be at a 4! I told her to get a doctor in there right away.

When an older resident came, she checked me and told the new one, "She's at an 8, and that was her bag of waters that you were feeling." Thank you very much!

So I was rushed into the delivery area and the nurse was arguing with the new resident and telling her that this was my fourth baby and if she gave me the drugs she had in her hand "that baby won't breathe when it comes out!" I refused to take anything from her; by that time she realized I wasn't a pushover, and that I was going to have the baby soon. I really think she thought it would be a few more hours!

Of course, during this time I had to ask for a bed pan for my problem from the castor oil! The nurse asked if I was sure it was for a bowel movement, or if I felt pressure. I didn't want to tell her what I had taken, so I just asked for the bed pan again.

Finally my doctor got there and suited up. The nurse couldn't find the heartbeat so they were preparing the wire to screw into his little head. All of the sudden I felt like I had to scream. As I did my bag of water exploded all over the room and his head came out with it! I had not even started to push! You should have seen everyone jump into high gear. The doctor ran over to suction him out and then said, "Now you can push out his shoulders." It was only 4:30 a.m. I hadn't even realized that I was ready to push and couldn't believe he was there.

He was out before I knew it, and I was just laughing and laughing. Talk about easy labor! I didn't even know it was happening! The nurses couldn't believe I could be so happy after I just had given birth.

But beware of the castor oil! I still had "problems" in that area for weeks! I never had to touch the stool softeners! But I held my beautiful little Caleb Nicolas in my arms and got to spend a lot of time with him right away, because they still hadn't signed me in yet!