Sunday morning we got the call we had been waiting for and were told to come in for the induction at noon. 

I got there and was 1-2cm dialated so they put in gell to soften my cervix. By 3pm I was in active labor with contractions every 2minutes lasting 40-45 seconds. At this point I wasn't yet in L&D but was in another area on the same floor. They decided to check me an hour before they were going to because I was in a lot of pain and having consistent contractions. In 3 hours I got to 5-6cm and they sent me to L&D. 

My plan was to get the epidural all along but didn't end up getting it until 7cm around 8 because of the IV. The epidural itself was scary and the guy had to insert the needle twice. (The second time much better than the first) He hit a nerve the second time which made me scream out of fear (not pain) because I wasn't expecting it and didn't know it was normal to get a shooting sensation down one leg. 

Epidural gave me 1 hour of complete relief but I was progressing so quickly that when I got to 9.5cm I could feel everything again but I know that the contractions I was feeling then were no more painful than the ones I had gotten before the epidural. My vagina was completely numb so I'm very happy that I didn't have to feel the ring of fire when he came out but I still felt contractions while pushing which made me feel like I couldn't push him out. For me Pushing was the worst until I could feel his head crowning and that wasn't painful but I could feel the stretching. It gave me modivation to keep going. What really hurt was the shoulders and contractions. 

He was born in 8hours and I had absolutely no tears and needed no stitches. 9lbs 7oz. It still burns to pee but that's because they gave me a latex catheter after they knew I had a latex allergy, and my lady bits aren't happy.

All and all I think I'm quite lucky and I feel for women who have had it a lot worse than I.