I was having regular contraction for 24 hours but they weren’t particularly painful. I stayed up all night Thursday tracking them and getting anxious. We decided to go in Friday morning to check and see how things were going. They told us they will probably send us home since The contractions were not quite strong enough but then I had an elevated BP and so they ran tests just to make sure I didn’t have Preeclampsia. Pee sample came back and they decided to admit me because I was borderline. I was 39 weeks exactly so my midwife decided to go head and do an induction for that day, which was pretty rare in an Army hospital. We came in around 8:30am and the induction began around 11:50 with a balloon inserted. I was only 1 cm dilated when i came in so they told us it would take around 12 hours to get me up to 4 cm before they started the pitocin. I wasn’t really given any pain meds and the cramping was so intense (like 8-9 pain wise) only 5 hours (4:30) after I had reached 4 cm and they took the balloon out. That was one of the worst parts pain wise because my body was not ready for the strong contractions. After that things slowed down and I was at 5 cm with mild contractions til around 8pm when they began the pitocin. That’s when things kicked up. I was having painful contractions that were 1-2 minutes apart and still wasn’t dilating past 5. Around 2 am I caved and went with the epidural. My body was shaking so badly that it was difficult to sit there through it. Finally fell asleep after 48 hours of being up. They came in around 3:30am and told me I still was at a 5 so I was beginning to get discouraged. Slept until 5:45 when a bunch of nurses came rushing into room and put oxygen on me, I got really freaked out because I thought the baby was in distress and we might not have a vaginal delivery which was not how I wanted her birth to go. They finally slowed down and told me I was fully dilated and she just needed to drop so we could start pushing. I was still half asleep so it took awhile to register all this. Around 7am I started to push and the epidural was just strong enough were I was aware of pressure without the pain(perfect). At 7:40 am our girl Gracyn Harley was born 6lbs 8oz 19 3/4 inches. It was so emotional and exhausting, but only 20 hours for an induction. I was blessed to have such a good delivery and I had a pretty decent experience with all my nursing staff and midwives.