37 weeks - my baby is a fighter.

Just wanted to pass share my birth story, because I'm kind of proud of it. I went to l&d at 37 weeks exactly to be monitored because my BP was high and I had pre-e. They decided to induce me due to the state of my placenta/high BP and that day (monday) I started cervadil. I was dilated to 1 and barely effaced at all. When they removed the cervadil (very early Tuesday), I was still only dilated to 1 but about 50% effaced. They started pitocin and my contractions starting coming about 2 minutes apart. The pit was started at 5am and I held off on the epidural until about 2pm. The nurses encouraged it and at that point it was starting to get painful. After the epi (which HURT), they checked me and I was only dilated to 1.5. Discouraging to say the least. We kept at it and at the next check at 4, I was dilated to 3 and 90% effaced. From that point, there was no progress whatsoever. They had already broken my waters at 8am, my contractions were very regular and strong, i just wasn't dilating for some reason. But since they had already broken my waters, there was no choice but to continue. My OB let me keep trying until 10pm which was 17 hours of contractions, with only 2cm to show for it. I started running a low grade fever and he told me I needed a c-section. I was really disappointed and definitely shed some tears but I just wanted a healthy baby. At this point, my epi had completely worn off on one side, so I was terrified they would have to put me completely under to do the section. It turned out though, that they just gave me a ton of the epi medicine and both sides went back to numb. So they started the c-section, and I can't lie, it was 1000 times worse than I could have prepared myself for. I thought it would be an easy, go in and scoop out the baby type of thing. I couldn't have prepared myself for the sensation though. It was so uncomfortable. Not so much pain, but just an almost unbearable discomfort. The part of the surgery to get my baby out only took maybe 10 minutes. My baby boy was born at 11:18 and we went into the operating room at 11:00. The second I saw him, my heart just burst into pieces. Then I waited for him to cry. The first thing I said after he was born was asking the doctor if he was going to cry. The doctor told me he would, but that it takes a minute sometimes. So they took him to the table to clean him and he still wasn't crying. The nicu nurses started to work on him and I remember laying there and hearing one of them say they needed to start chest compressions NOW. The anesthesiologist did chest compressions on my son while the nurses decided to intubate him. All the while, I was laying strapped to a bed not knowing what was happening but knowing that I hadn't heard my son take his first breath and cry. I can't explain to anyone what that felt like. I have never felt so helpless and so terrified. It was a fear that I can't even wrap my mind around. My husband said that while this was happening, he was standing there watching and he won't even tell me everything. He said that our baby was gray and he thought he was never going to get to hold his boy. I have never seen him cry like he did when he told me that and it breaks my heart now just thinking about it. FINALLY after 4 long minutes of work, my baby coughed and started to cry. I have never in my life felt anything like what I felt when I heard that sound and I know I never will again. It was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. They brought my baby over to me on the table and let me kiss him and see him, then immediately rushed him to nicu.