At 38 weeks and 3 days I went to my regular weekly OB appointment last Thursday, expecting to have hardly any changes in dilation/effacement. Baby was head down and I was only 1cm dilated and sitting at 50% effaced the week before, and hadn't experienced any increase in Braxton hicks contractions. When my doctor checked my cervix she stated I was basically in the same position as last week, however, my blood pressure had risen quite a bit. She noticed some protein in my urine along with the fact that my reflexes were off and my right leg was swelling, she determined I was on track to possibly getting preeclampsia. She said that since I was far enough along to have a healthy baby she decided to start inducing labor to prevent me from getting worse and becoming preeclamptic. She sent me directly to the hospital right after that to get me started on a very low dose of Pitocin just to soften my cervix. So from 3:30 pm to midnight I was basically waiting for cervix to soften enough to start active labor. At midnight we started to up the dosage of pitocin every half hour to begin dilating. At around 3am the nurse checked my cervix and I was sitting at about 7 almost 8 cm. At that point the contractions had become very painful and enough for me to decide to get the epidural, and boy am I glad I did!!  3 hours after getting the epidural and some relief from the contractions, I told my nurse that I felt a weird "vibration" on the bed. She checked under the covers and said my bag of waters was hanging out and it was time to call my doctor to deliver!! About 10 mins later my doctor was there to break my water and start pushing. Because the epidural took away pretty much all the pain, I could just barely feel the pressure of my baby moving down the birth canal. After 6hours of active labor and about 15-20 pushes, my baby was born at 6:40 AM. She was 6 lbs 1 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. She is the most precious thing I have ever laid eyes on and this first time mommy couldn't be happier!!