What I thought was going to be a fast process was the total opposite. Day 1 consisted of me trying to get dilated. They inserted a magicial string that took 12 hours to get me dilated to 3. No contractions just at a 3. Day 2 they inserted the balloon - we kept the balloon in for 12 hours - one of the worst things I've ever had to deal with by the way - the balloon worked it got me to 5 1/2 centimeters dilated. Then we played the waiting game. Waiting for contractions, changing positions, checking my blood pressure, putting internal monitors on the baby, and not eating for going on 3 days. I was giving up - my contractions started to get intense around 2:45 - I finally caved and asked for a pain reliever - after getting it injected in my IV the next contraction came and it wasn't working . The nurse decided to check me and I was at a 9 1/2 - we couldn't believe it - our baby boy was born at 3:13 after all that we finally have our boy.