I was scheduled to be induced on September 28, 2017 at 39 weeks and 3 days. My mother lives out of state, and my doctor was very understanding and allowed me an elective induction.

Anyway... on the 26th I went to bed like any other night hut I woke up at midnight to go pee (as usual) and when I tried to go back to sleep, I was feeling some cramps which was also pretty usual for me the last month or so. But these cramps wouldn't go away, and by 2:30 I realized they were contractions. I woke up my husband you immediately got out of bed and called his mom so we could drop off our other kiddo and I called l&d.; They wanted me to wait a bit, so we did and by 5:45 am we ended up at the hospital. Unfortunately I was only dilated to a 1 and we got sent home.

At home, I was having regular contractions, but they were about 6 minutes apart and not getting closer together. My mother in law came over for a bit. We took the dog for a walk in the neighborhood, I cleaned my house, basically tried to keep moving. She also brought me a yoga yoga ball and I was bouncing on it for about an hour before i decided to try to sleep. At this point it's is about 12:45.

Honestly I couldn't really sleep as the contractions still really hurt but I laid in bed for a bit. I got up to go to the bathroom and pee and felt a huge gush but I thought it was just a lot of pee and got back in bed. I started having second thoughts about it and at 1:15 I went back to the bathroom and again another gush... this time I was convinced my water broke so we headed back to the hospital. When we got there at 2:30 I was at 3.5 cm

I was given my antibiotics in my IV and finally got my epidural. At this point a couple of hours had passed, it was probably about 5, and my mother in law finally made it to the hospital and my mom's flight was supposed to land at 6. My sister in law picked up my 5 year old. I was at 5 cm.

My mom's flight finally landed and she came straight to the hospital. I was so glad she made it because the whole day I was worried she was going to miss it! I didn' get checked again until 7:30 and I was at an 8!!!

This is where things kind of stop progressing. I stayed at 8 until 9:30. At this point I'm feeling pain and was so uncomfortable. I was at the end of my rope, being awake for almost 24 hours. We finally got to 9 cm at 11, and stayed there. I was crying and begging for a c-section at this point! My husband just kept telling me "you can do this, you don't want a c section, we're so close" but I was SO TIRED and in pain, and getting no where. Finally the doctor decided to help me out and have me push a bit. Sure enough it worked and after 3 pushed he was crowning!!!

10 minutes of pushing and at 12:38 am on 09/28/2017 my baby boy was born!!! The relief I felt as he left my body was amazing. I'm so glad I had these people supporting me even though I wanted to give up. I think the hardest part about this labor was that I could not feel ANYTHING because of the epidural- even vaginal pressure. I was feeling a pinched nerve in my back that was driving me to tears. Honestly when I was pushing i didn't even think I was pushing well but everyone was cheering me on and telling me I was doing a great job, and sure enough he came quickly. I am very happy to have my baby boy here!