My June 23rd baby came June 18th ... 34 hours after regular, timetable contractions (the less ignorable kind) began. Sent home from the hospital after I was only dilated to a 1. Went back six hours later because I couldn't handle the pain, was up to a 3. Did a couple IVs of analgesics until I was a 5 and then took the epidural. They missed twice before it went in right 😩 my contractions weren't picking up enough so they did pictosin a lot... Finally I completed dilating & effacement Sat morning but my resident was delivering twins vaginally so I had to wait awhile to start pushing. I REALLY didn't think I could do it because I was exhausted; but two and a half hours of a team of people encouraging me Luna came out with only two stitches worth of damage to mom!! I was so mesmerized by her I do NOT remember pushing out her body or an arm inside me pulling out the after birth. Highly recommend the epidural ... Didn't affect baby or I's health except low fevers that went down within 24 hours of delivery.