Scheduled to be induced Monday 9/12 at Midnight due to slightly elevated bp. Received phone call at 5pm Monday night stating they were full at the hospital and need to reschedule me. Told to come Friday night at the same time.

Friday night comes and we get to room around 10:30 with no trouble. Blood draw goes well. IV not so much. One nurse sticks the back of both hands unsuccessfully as they blow out. A second nurse sticks the inside of left arm and then outside of left arm unsuccessfully as well. A third nurse manages to get the back of my left hand, as I'm in cold sweats.

Check cervix, not dilated and 70% effaced. Insert round one of cyotec at 11:30. Round 2 inserted at 3:30. Dr should be in at 7:30.

8:45 a Doctor who I have never met walks in wearing khakis and a Polo shirt. He is on hour 72 of on-call and he's a practicioner for a different doctors office than I use. Has no file on me, no info at all, and keeps using the phrase "it's highly unusual."

Turns out, they usually don't schedule inductions on the weekend, especially with a different office's Doctor. All things considered, he is fantastic.

Check cervix now, 4cm and 90% dilated. Instead of doing pitocin, we go with another round of cyotec at 9:30 am. This one is inserted directly in the cervix to speed things up. Have to stay still in bed for an hour after insertion. After an hour and a half, need to use bathroom. After relieving myself, I feel the gush of my water breaking.

Back to the bed to get through a bag of saline before we can start for an epidural. An hour later, we are go for epidural. Pre-warned by the Nurse that the anesthesiologist gets spooked easily and will stop the procedure and say it's too far along and it's too late if I am too loud. So I have to breathe as steadily and quietly as I can through the contractions.

He arrives and sets up for insertion. First attempt doesn't get into the correct spot as I'm finding it hard to bend over enough. Second attempt gets into epidural space but he somehow taps into a blood vessel in my spine (better at getting an IV in than the nurses!). Third attempt is successful. Almost 2 1/2 hours after my water broke.

Epidural is effective everywhere but my left pelvic bone right above my groin. They kept calling it a hot spot, so I need to lay on my left side to help the meds sink into there.

After starting epidural, doctor decides to insert an internal monitor for baby, as he is starting to get slightly distressed, and they are having a hard time keeping him on the external monitor. First time inserting the head probe, he moves too quickly and yanks it out, and they get it in the second time.

Now babys heart rate is dropping, so I have to lay on right side to keep it up, while keeping me on an oxygen mask since mine isn't staying too steady either. So there goes the epidural being 100% effective on me. Baby is either got cord wrapped around his neck or head is being compressed in the birth canal, so we get to load a bag of saline in behind his head to open up some space for him to move around (and to help push him out).

Right at around 3, doctor checks me again, 9 1/2. Time to have a baby. The only way I can tell I am having a contraction is the pain in my pelvis on left side. I have my husband and mother in the room with me, and each gets a leg to help me push back. Rounds of three pushes for ten seconds each contraction. Three or four rounds in, he starts crowning, and I can't stop pushing. Last round, both of their feet skidded on the ground and baby slides on out.

After birth is no trouble, and I get baby laid on my chest while still attached to cord. As my husband cuts his cord, I get to see beautiful baby eyes starting up at me.

So all in all, admitted at midnight, cyotec from midnight to 9:30 am, water breaks at 11:30, epidural at 1:30, start hard labor at 3ish, and baby arrives at 3:33.

7lb 6oz, 20.5 inches of screaming, wiggling, beautiful baby.