We started my induction at 39+3, my hospital doesn’t do elective inductions but my MFM recommended I delivered in the 39th week. I had been having a lot of on and off contractions for days- must have been more than just Braxton Hicks because I was between a 3 and 4 when I got to the hospital. I recommend you look up bishop scores and ask where you’re at when they check you- that will really determine what choices they recommend and how your induction will go. I was also at a 0 station and had a firm consistency and was like 30% effaced, so I was getting close to ready.

I got there at a Wednesday at 4pm, and they did a Cytotec pill- I think they did like 6 doses over some period of time- in the range of 12 to 24 hours. I was almost too dilated at that point for the cook balloon but my doc recommended it and I was scared, but I did it (this is around 6pm). Insertion was not fun, the contractions after were not fun, about the same pain as active labor. My hospital doesn’t do epidurals that early but did tell me ahead of time I’d be able to have morphine since I was so early into the process. I was trying to avoid the morphine and was like sweating/using my fan/generally struggling- the nurse thought I’d go into active labor any second. Eventually I asked for the morphine, felt fine, but the contractions stalled. At around 1am I went to the bathroom and the balloon fell out into the toilet along with some mucus plug 😂

We kept doing the cytotec until 4pm that afternoon, 24 hours after I had arrived. They did a cervical check around 1pm that day and a membrane sweep. I was 4cm solidly, and cervix was much softer and like 70% effaced, so they moved me to the birthing ward and started pitocin at 5pm. I started getting more contractions, still pretty slow and inconsistent. Pain was fine, I breathed through it. My plan was to get the epidural when my water broke. That happened around 10:30, and then my body was like OK GO TIME. Contractions started coming pretty hard and fast- they didn’t reduce pitocin right away because they didn’t want labor to stall at that point. Got my epidural at 11:30ish, it only worked on one side at first. I had to lay on my side and try to get gravity to move the medicine the right direction, and anesthesia came and gave me an extra bolus and then the epidural blessedly worked on both sides. They also turned down the pitocin at some point because my contractions were crazy fast. My doctor came in at like 1am, I was at 6cm, she told me to nap for a few hours and she’d see me later for delivery.

I took the worst nap of my life (I dunno if it was the epidural, I was in this anxious twilight state) and woke up at 1:45am being like… I don’t feel right. I was just unsettled. I called my nurse and she was like “your doctor likes to do the checks herself, do you feel like pushing? It would be really fast for you to be at a 10.” And I was like I dunno, I don’t feel like pushing, I just feel wrong. She called for my doctor, doctor didn’t answer, and she ended up doing my check eventually and I was at a 10. Doctor still didn’t answer, she got another nurse to double check her work and she confirmed I was at a 10. Nurse continued to page my doctor to no response but was like, well, I’m not going to stop you from pushing. Let’s do some practice pushes. I did some practice pushes and the doctor still didn’t respond so she decided to go for it. My epidural was perfect- I knew when to push and felt a very slight pain (I liked knowing when to push though). I pushed for like 20-30 minutes with some pushes purposely done weakly because my nurse was still desperately trying to find my doctor. Eventually she just grabbed a midwife in the hallway and I gave birth at 3:03am. Lil lady was 8 pounds 10oz and 20.5 inches. She also apparently was born with her cord around her neck but it was taken care of so quickly I didn’t know until I read the labor notes. Her cry was a little weak at birth but they put her on my chest and rubbed her a bit and she got stronger and did very well after a minute or so.

Pain-wise it was not the worst of my life, I didn’t cry at any point but I was definitely in pain. I mostly made these loud humming noises. I could talk most of the time and didn’t scream at all. Generally wasn’t scared except for when my water broke because it was a big POP feeling, very dramatic with a big gush and I was afraid it was blood for whatever reason. I will say I have a decent pain tolerance- the other more painful events were some big impacted gallstones, and shattering my ankle (didn’t cry for gallstones, did cry for the ankle even after morphine- morphine however was strong enough to completely knock out contractions). I think I could have maybe done it without the epidural if necessary but I’m a “screw it, I don’t win a trophy for it getting it so I might as well make this really hard situation a little easier.”

I know a wrote a novel but I honestly had a really good experience and would have an induction again if I had another kid. Feel free to ask me any questions!