May 7th I awoke on Wednesday morning to contractions all on my own. I was happy…..my body was doing something! The doctor was glad to see this as well and said that he would not start pitocin and see what would happen. My water began to trickle and eventually I had a gush of fluid come out. Things were about to change. The doctor examined me again…..still no dilation, just thinned out cervix. He decided to put me on pitocin since my contractions were regular and he thought it would make things progress since I had dilated to 1 cm! By 4PM I was beginning to feel the effects of labor…….and it wasn’t enjoyable. I asked for pain meds and was given nubane. This was a wonder drug at first….felt like I had downed a bottle of wine. Unfortunately the effects did not last long and the next few shots did little to comfort me. The doctor was called in for an emergency c-section and there were no orders written for me to have any other pain meds, but there was an order to increase my pitocin drip. So the pain increased and I was beginning to suffer. By 6:30PM, the doctor came in to check me, I had dilated to 2 which he said was “generous”. Another doctor was coming on at 7:00PM and they were going to discuss what to do before going further. I was happy that this doctor was coming on because out of all the doctors in the practice he was my favorite and had seen me the most. He came in to check me at 7:30PM and agreed that my cervix was 1-2 as well. He said that he would order my epidural and then he would progress things with pitocin being upped at a faster pace. I was happy……an epidural……I was in so much pain at this point!! Well, before the anesthesiologist could be called to my room they had to get the pump ready. This took too long for me, as I could not understand why they did not have everything they needed on a labor and delivery floor. At 8:30PM I finally received an epidural. This was painless for me and I felt the effects pretty rapidly. I was continued to be monitored with little change. I was told to get some sleep. I slept for 1 hour and awoke to my right leg being asleep and knocked out from the epidural. I could move my left leg but could not move my right leg. I did not like this feeling at all. I was checked again at 11:00PM and my cervix had dilated to 5cm…….we were finally making some progress. The doctor predicted that I would deliver around 3-5AM (he felt I would dilate at least 1cm per hour). I tried to go back to sleep so I could be rested for your delivery!