I scheduled an induction at my 40 week appointment for Tuesday, February 28th (1 day shy of 41 weeks). I arrived at the hospital around 8:30am already at 5cm and contracting on my own but didn't even feel it! My doctor decided not to use pitocin because I was having regular contractions. The labor and delivery nurses tried 3 times to get an IV in and each time it failed (this was super painful). After about an hour they finally called the IV specialist and got my IV placed. My doctor ruptured my water at 10 am and I started to really feel the contractions so I got an epidural at 10:35. The IVs seriously hurt worse than getting the epi! After the epidural things slowed down a little so I started pitocin at 11:35. Silas' heart rate had some minor decelerations that weren't solved by switching positions so they stopped the pitocin after an hour. They checked me for dilation around 2:15 and I was 6cm. Got checked again at 3:15 and I was up to a 7. By 3:45 I was 8cm dilated and they started the pitocin again to get me the last 2cm. Baby tolerated the pitocin well this time and by 4:30 I was 9.5cm and 100% effaced! At 5:15 my contractions were coming every minute and a half to 2 minutes apart so I knew I was getting really close to delivering. I was fully dilated and effaced but made the decision to allow baby to descend by himself to save energy. I began practice pushing at 5:54 with the nurse, my doctor was called in at 6:04 and after seeing how I was pushing rushed to put on her gown and gloves. She told me to stop pushing but his head was delivered after I stopped anyways. She told me to push one more time and he was out! Silas was delivered at 6:09pm after 15 minutes and 6 contractions with his cord wrapped around his body. I cried tears of joy! I had a mirror to watch his entry into the world and both DJ and my mom were in the room. I had minimal tearing on my labia but otherwise no tearing on my actual vagina/perineum or any other complications! Baby had a small blood vessel burst in each eye because of the fast delivery but the doctor said it's normal and will clear up on its own. We did skin to skin for an hour and I breastfed him, an experience I'll remember forever. I can't believe my labor was that fast and easy! I expected to be miserable but the worst part was the IVs and being thirsty because I was only allowed ice chips but wanted liquid water. I feel so lucky to have had a vaginal birth with no complications that resulted in a healthy baby boy 🍀