I got induced on 2/3 at 9 pm, I was already having contractions when I went in, but they were very irregular. The longest process was dilating. They gave me a pill every 3 hours, I started the first one at 10:50pm. When I went in I was at a 2. By 5 am I was still at a 2. At around 7:30 or 8, my doctor came in and broke my water, at that point I was only a 3. Baby didn't respond well to my water breaking, his heart rate got scary low, my doctor relieved more fluid and that helped. After my water broke, I became super nauseous (the smell!) And the contractions became more intense. They gave me zofran to ease the nausea and I labored on my own without any pain regimen until 10:30am when I got an epidural. My contractions were so painful I was in tears. I initially didn't want an epidural because I went so fast with my first I thought I'd be able to labor on my own without it. But I barely slept an hour and a half the night before, I just couldn't get comfortable between not being at home in my own bed and having contractions every 2-4 minutes, they weren't intense ones at that point, but still annoying enough to not get any sleep. So, I decided to get the epidural so that I could get some rest.

After I got my epidural, I felt very woozy/loopy. I also began shaking profusely. It took a long while for it to kick in and I actually had to press the pump 2 or 3 times before it took full effect. The contractions were painful and still 1-2 minutes apart with barely a 30 second break in between. When I was given the epidural, I was at a 4. At 12:30, I was checked again and almost at a 5, so they started a dose of pitocin. After that things went extremely fast! By 12:50 I was a 7 and by 1:10 I was at a 9. My doctor came in and helped me get to a 10. About 10 minutes later I called them back in saying that I felt the urge to push. They came in and set up everything and I started pushing at around 1:30. I had a hard time breathing while pushing so I asked for oxygen. My doctor was doing everything she could to help. She put in forceps and I ended up ripping. I kept pushing as hard as I could (hard to do when you can't feel what you're doing) but he was stuck on my pelvic bone. He was turned side ways so she has to use a suction vacuum to turn him. Once she turned him I pushed two more times and actually got him out by laughing. She said she could see his head and that it was covered with blonde hair! That tickled me and I proceeded to laugh. She told me to keep laughing because it was helping him come out. By 1:55 Xander James was born 7lbs 14oz, 21 inches long! So in love with this little miracle!