This will be my 4th.
I'm less nervous with each one.
My first:
13.5 hours started with water breaking at home. I got the epi. Pushed for maybe 40 min. It was great!
My second:
2 hours flat from "cramps" waking me up to baby coming out at hospital. We barely got into a delivery room in time. I was 9 cm when I got to triage. No epi due to lack of time.
My third:
Maybe 3-4 hours total. I was actually induced with pitocin (I had been on bedrest for 10 weeks and was finally DONE being pregnant once I hit 39 weeks). But I actually went without painkillers/epi. I was a bit scared to even try it as I heard pit makes the contractions much stronger. It sucked, yeah, I felt like I was going to die briefly (but I felt that wasy during delivery of #2 as well) - but it was brief and then I was able to get up immediately and walk around/shower/etc. This one was interesting too b/c I seemed to stall at 7 cm for a while and with back-labor which was unexpected. Finally a nurse had me sit up and she did some sort of hard massage/rubbing on my lower back and all of a sudden the contractions started slamming me. I/we think maybe baby was turned the wrong way (sunnyside up) and flipped when the nurse did the massage and I changed position. All of a sudden baby started coming. Despite being induced (so my doc was in the building) - my doctor couldn't get back to my room in time. The baby just came and the nurses had to handle the delivery. Hat tip to my nurses - this was the only delivery where I didn't tear at all. :)
I'm hoping to go without the epi again this time but I always take a pretty laid back - we'll just see how it goes approach. I'm not trying to be a hero. But I like not having to be pumped up with fluids and being able to get up right after.