So on 11/14 my husband and I enjoyed our last day together just us and even went to a late dinner before my 11 pm induction. When we got there they escorted us right to a labor and delivery room, since inductions by pass the need for the triage rooms. The nurse and midwife came in and explained I would have a foley bulb installed then hooked up to fluids and pitocin. Now I was in the mind set of getting drugs; but of course when I asked they insisted I had to wait a little later, and the foley needed to be out for the epidural. The foley insert wasn’t bad at all. I had two balloons put in with that silver duck lip contraption thing they use for a OB visit. To be honest, the membrane sweeps I had were way more painful! They squeezed one past my 1cm of dilation, and left the other one right outside my cervix. The goal was to slowly make the balloons bigger overtime while having contractions to thin and dilate my cervix against the pressure of these balloons (similar to what babies head should naturally do for your cervix). They hooked me up to the pitocin and slowly let that drip. It took about 30 mins to get some contractions 2 mins apart. I wasn’t hurting, just felt uncomfortable pressure in my stomach! I laid in bed watching tv and my contractions go by as my husband slept on his bed. These contractions started to intensify within an hour of when we started the pitocin, I couldn’t sleep through them, so they gave me some pain meds. The only thing that did was make me feel drunk and tired in between the contractions; but the pain was still there for the contractions themselves, so I practiced some breathing techniques (I made up🤷🏼‍♀️) to help me through it. I labored throughout the night slowly making progress and every hour, for three hours, having them fill the balloons more and slowly up my pitocin. when around 8 am the nurse said I was 5 cm and she took out my foley and grabbed the doctor to break my water. The water breaking was more uncomfortable then anything because I had to lay still throughout a contraction. Once that was done I had quickly asked my nurse when we could do the epidural, to which she replied “ when you have tears coming down your face.” I sat and was so sad that to this nurse apparently thought or insinuated that I was a baby for asking for my epidural. The contractions got worse and worse, as I starred at the clock telling myself I’d make it til 9am without having the epidural. Well 8:45am rolled around and I caved and asked for it. Anesthesiology came in right away and got me hooked up. This didn’t hurt either, just pressure is all I felt; which was a god send compared to what I was dealing with. It took about 15-20 mins to kick in, and man I was so happy once it did, I watched my contractions go by, not feeling a thing, and even got a much needed nap in! My family came to visit me at 1pm while I was 7cm dilated and I could feel my left side starting to contract. I had held off pushing the epidural release button thinking I was going to save it for delivery. After my family left my nurse came and moved me on my left side and uped my dosage of meds to help (same judgemental nurse from before). I asked her how many button pushes I get for my epidural, and she laughed and said how ever many it’ll let you, and they could refill the bag! I was on cloud nine after hearing that. I set a timer on my phone for ever 15 mins the machine would allow me to push that lovely button. An hour later, after sitting straight up, I was 10 cm and ready to start pushing! I like to think my kegel workouts helped here; because my nurse would tell me to push, and I’d start with my muscle memory from my kegels and the nurse said she was coming; but never felt a thing! I pushed through 3 contractions for about 6 mins and she made me stop since the doctor wasn’t there and her head was almost half out. So the nurse had my husband and I grab my little girls head just to feel while we waited. We even cracked jokes waiting because I wasn’t in pain (but was still hitting that button even during delivery). Doctor got there, suited up and said we are having a baby with one contraction when you’re ready. Well I thought that meant I was having a contraction, since I couldn’t feel it and quickly pushed her right out. The doctors laughed that I didn’t wait for the contraction; but proud I did it that way even with the epidural! I could feel the pressure difference of her coming down, that was it! Our little Gwendolyn Rose was born 11/15/17 at 2:14pm weighing 7 lbs 2 oz and 20” long! 16 hours of labor, 10 mins of pushing, and one small tear to the right. Long story short- don’t let nurses pressure you into doing anything, do your kegels, and have a good postpartum kit at home!! Thanks for listening to me blab! Good luck mommas!!