Since baby seemed to be measuring small, my doctor decided to induce me at 39 wks. I went in aug 27 to get the water balloon inserted into my cervix to jump start labor since I hadn't dilated past 1 cm in the last 3 weeks. He told me he wouldn't be surprised if I was back in the hospital by 3 am! Longest night ever haha but I never went into labor, so I had to wait till my scheduled induction at 7:30 on Aug 28. The balloon did help me dilate to 5cm by the time I was checked into the hospital, but that's about it. They decided to start me on pitocin to get things moving, which still didn't totally help. By noon I was still only at 6 cm with very light contractions. My doctor decided to break my water about 1:30, which definitely intensified the contractions but were still tolerable. My doctor recommended waiting till I was about an 8 to get the epidural since I'm a FTM and he didn't think my body would move very quickly. Since I was still only a 7 but the contractions were getting a little worse, I asked for some regular pain meds. These took the edge off for a few minutes, but then all of the sudden (about 2:15 at this point) the pain became unbearable. I told the nurse I needed the epidural right away, but of course the anesthesiologist didn't answer 😔 she said it would be a few minutes but by that time I felt like baby was actually trying to push his way out!! I started crying and saying I felt like I needed to push and the nurse kept saying "that's not possible, you're not dilated enough, baby isn't coming just breathe!" I told her again my body felt like it needed to push so she decided to check me and sure enough she screams "oh my gosh you're right! His head his coming out!" They called my doctor and he rushed over just in time. About 10 pushes later and my baby boy is here!! The doctor couldn't believe I went from a 7 to a 10 and baby crowning so fast, but i guess my baby was ready to meet his momma 💙