A little late posting my birth story but I thought I'd share since I loved reading these when I was pregnant. I was induced at 8am on Aug 26 at that point I was already 2cm dilated and completely effaced. They started the Pitocin around 9 and then broke my water at about 1. My contractions didn't get bad until about 4, I was determined to have as natural of a birth as possible so I continued to breath through my contractions and tough it out. Around 8 I couldn't take the pain anymore, i was only dilated to a 4 and I couldn't relax and was crying through the contractions so I requested an epidural, it took awhile since the anesthesiologist was helping someone with a c-section so I didn't get the epidural till around 10. The epidural definitely ended up being the best thing for me! It helped me relax and by midnight I was dilated to 10. I thought the epidural was wearing off but it turned out it just couldn't keep up with how fast I was progressing. They had me labor a little longer to get the baby down on her own then I started pushing at about 1:30am. I didn't realize how long first time moms can end up pushing and I pushed until she was finally born at 4:54am on Aug 27! It was so exhausting and painful but so worth it! I was so scared that the epidural would slow my labor but it sped it up so if you feel like your body needs it then I highly recommend it!