So with my first child, I labored unmedicated for 17 hours and he was out in three pushes. I tore and required stitches. While incredibly rewarding, I chose a different route with my second child.

During my pregnancy I started having prodromal labor around 36 weeks that was horrible and exhausting. So, at 40 weeks, I asked to be induced. They agreed, so at 40 weeks 1 day I went in to be induced.

I was already 2cm, anterior, 75% effaced, and soft. Baby was low, so they decided that AROM would be a good way to try to get my labor going since I had already been having some non productive contractions.

They broke my water at 4:45pm on 4-24-18. Contractions started immediately, no pitocin needed. I walked around the unit for a couple hours, then paced my room a couple hours. My nurse would periodically make me lay in the bed for 30-60 minutes for monitoring which was agony. Luckily, at 7:00 pm they had shift change, and my night nurse was way more understanding. She hooked me up to the mobile monitoring and let me get on an exercise ball.

About an hour and a half later, I was yelling and moaning to get through each contraction. They seemed like they were on top of each other, and I couldn't get a break. So, I caved and asked for the epidural, which I had never had before. It took another hour for the nurse anesthetist to get in and get it inserted (which was hard by the way. It's hard to be still for that during contractions.). Let me tell you though, the epidural was magical. After he got it going at 9:30, my nurse checked me and I was 7 cm dilated. Yay!

I lay in bed and managed to nap until I woke up feeling strong contractions on my right side at 12:30am. They turned me so that the medication could disperse properly, and showed me I could push a button for extra epidural medication. This worked wonderfully. She also checked me and I was complete, but baby was still high.

They kept asking me if I could feel pressure, but honestly I couldn't feel anything. At one point, the nurse came in to adjust the baby's heart monitor, and she literally adjusted it to hear her heart and it went lower and lower until my baby literally just came out between my legs. I felt nothing! The nurse and I were both shocked. The nurse caught her and yelled "Baby! Baby!" And staff came rushing in. Baby was born at 1:52am and is healthy happy and gorgeous, and I had no tearing!