Our 11/11 baby was born exactly a week early on 11/4 after a 29 hour labor; I started having mildly painful continuos contractions on Thursday night. My visiting mom and I chatted and had tea until about 3am Friday morning (I was thinking "oh labor isn't too bad!") then I took a salt bath, had about an hour of restless sleep before waking up again to take a walk with my hubby. We walked about 2 miles around our neighborhood and kept pausing in between contractions but it was still manageable. Many kind drivers offered assistance and a ride to the hospital everytime we paused. I felt an overwhelming sense of community that day than I have before, considering that we don't even know it neighbors, it made the contractions worthwhile. By the time we were back home the contractions were every 4 minutes so we went to the hospital only to get disappointing news that I was just 1cm dialated! The contractions also decided to make a liar out of me and had backed to being about 7 minutes apart instead of 4 like they were at home. They wanted me to go home and come back but the contractions were intense at this point so they carried on observing me, without admitting me, before finally discharging me at 6pm due to no change in dialation. They said they couldn't induce me because I was 38+6 weeks and they only induce at 39 weeks (even though I was 6 hours away from being 39 weeks)! I was heavily disappointed. The contractions were so strong at this point, I wondered how I would make it home, nevermind another 9cm of dilation. As my husband was helping me to put on my shoes to leave, a doctor with some common sense walked in. She said she looked at my charts and my contractions were strong that she was going to admit me, she asked if I wanted an epidiral. An epidural was not part of my birth plan but at this point that is all I wanted I cried at the kind offer! I would have still aimed for an unmedicated birth had I actually been dilating but the lack of dilation made me realize I could labor for days without intervention. Once in my delivery room, the contractions were so bad I was throwing up at each one until the relief of the epidural brought a smile to my face. It was quickly followed by pitocin to help me dialate. It was 11pm on Friday night and I had now been in labour for exactly 24 hours. They checked to see if I was dialating, and it was 1.5cm. I anticipated it would be another 12 hours before giving birth, but luckily for me I went from 1.5cm to 10cm in four hours thanks to pitocin! At 3am on Saturday morning I was pushing, and, being able to feel the contractions again, I started throwing up. They administered a drug to help stop the vomiting as I carried on pushing for an hour. The fatigue, at this point, was so great I didn't realise he was born until he was placed on my chest- I was so tired and weak that I didnt hear the cries, or my husband, or the doctors smiling and saying "congratulations". I burst out crying from relief and pure joy, looking over at my husband, he was crying too. Every minute of the of the hell I experienced was worth it for the joy that followed afterwards. I would do it again for this beautiful baby: Dillon Everett. Weighed exactly 8lbs, born 11/04/17 @ 04:04am