Contractions.......OH MY GOD

We got to the hospital and were in a room by 9am but then had to wait to see the doctor so that I could get the Cervadil to begin the induction process. This didn't happen until 2:30pm and the medicine had to be in for a minimum of 8-12 hours. At this point we really did think that it would be DAYS before we would get to meet our little Chase. Luckily things started moving pretty quickly at that point, and I started having contractions about 2 hours later that continued to increase in intensity. By 9pm the contractions were pretty painful and definitely felt like the "real deal". This picture was taken of the contractions around 11:15 and right before I asked for an epidural. I'd wanted to wait as long as possible without pain medication but with no end in sight I didn't know how long I'd last so I figured it was time. The epidural lasted for about 2 hours but then started wearing off around 3am. I got a little nervous so I asked the nurse if that was normal. Apparently it wasn't so she paged the anesthesiologist who took an hour to come back to give me more medicine. Within that hour while we waited the contractions came back with a vengence but the increased medication for the epidural never worked. We waited for another hour or so to give the epidural time to work but that never happened. I was hurting so badly that the doctor came back to check my progress and by about 6am I'd gone from 5 to 9cm. By about 7am it was time to push. After 2 and 1/2 hours of pushing, Chase Ryan Dickerson was here!