Throughout my pregnancy I was honestly terrified of labor. I have a high pain tolerance so it wasn't necessarily the pain that scared me. I think it was a mix of there being so many variables and knowing that, even with a solid plan, you can't really predict how labor will go. Things could change in an instant. I was even more afraid of being induced because I had heard that the process was very long and drawn out which, in my mind, made me think there was even more time for something to go wrong. So, when I went to my 39 week check up and my OB told me she was sending me to be induced right away due to high BP, I was in shock. I arrived at labor and delivery at 6pm, admission took a while so pitocin was started around 8 pm. My water was broken around 9, at which point I was just under 3cm dilated. Baby started to decell as contractions picked up, and surprisingly i didn't freak out. I felt a rush of calm over me as if my body just knew everything was fine. Pitocin was stopped at 9:30 to give baby a break and then started back at 2 around 10. Got epidural close to midnight and my nurse checked my cervix which was now close to 5cm, she told me to try and sleep since it would likely be a few more hours before showtime (she thought this was the case since it took from 8 to midnight for me to get from 2 to 5cm). Epidural only worked on one side of my body and I couldn't handle the pain on the other side so I pushed the button everytime i was told I could. Once I finally felt better I decided to try and sleep at 1:45. As soon as I closed my eyes the nurse came in and said she needed to check me based on how contractions were looking on the monitor (I couldn't feel a thing at this point as I accidentally pushed the button too many times on the epidural!). Turned out I went from 5 to 10 in an hour and it was time to push! After about 15 mins of pushing, my baby girl was here! Labor totaled 6 hours and some change. I am so glad that labor was much easier than I psyched myself up to think it was. My body knew what to do, and modern medicine made it so I could be out of pain and enjoy the experience. It's been a little over a week with my princess and I couldn't be happier!

I would say the aftermath of labor was a lot worse than the actual thing! Since I overdid it with the epidural, my right leg was completely numb and I couldn't move it. At my hospital, mothers and babies are moved to a different floor after birthing so after a rest it was time to get up and move. Since my leg was so numb the nurses had to put me in a strange contraption to hold me up and move to the bathroom. At which point I was told I had to go pee, it was IMPOSSIBLE because I was so numb so in went the cath. I looked over during the catheter placement to see I had leaked blood all over the floor when trying to move to the bathroom. All the while my husband k watching the whole time! Talk about embarrassing (even though I know he wasn't thinking anything negative, it still felt uncomfortable!). When the epidural finally wore off, everything hurt so bad - no surprise there! The pain is still pretty bad where the stitches are but I'm healing day by day. I would definitely say the aftermath and healing of labor is what will make me wait a while before doing it again 😝