Epidural yes or no? How did you decide?

I’m 28 weeks and I’m already kind of over being pregnant. 😂😂

So I’ve been thinking a lot about delivery and one thing that keeps coming up with my boyfriend and I is whether I want an epidural. From when I first found out I was pregnant, I said I wanted to attempt to give birth without, but also if I got tired or it was too much I wouldn’t be upset to get it.

I want to try unmedicated so that I can eat as soon as I want after birth and also so that I can move around. I have pretty terrible anxiety and being confined definitely exacerbates it. I would hate to hyperventilate in labor. Also, I do pretty well with breathing techniques when I have anxiety, but I’m unsure how well I would do with pain.

However, I have learned throughout pregnancy that I do not do well with physical discomfort. I’m kind of a huge baby. My boyfriend absolutely respects my decision and will be there for me no matter what, but he does say that knowing how low my pain tolerance is and how sad/anxious pain makes me, that he thinks it would be helpful for me to get it ASAP. He did bring up that it can take awhile to get it placed once you request it as well, so waiting until I’m absolutely miserable would make everything worse.

I honestly agree with him and he makes really good points, but I was looking forward to trying it unmedicated. In my mind I’m thinking that even if it got super painful and I had to wait for the epidural to be placed, then once it’s in I’ll be fine either way. At the same time, what if it got so bad and then they checked me and I was ready to push? Like I don’t know y’all. 😂😂

What defining factor(s) made you decide one way or the other?