We arrived at the hospital a bit after 8 pm on the 11th. We got into a (very small) room pretty quickly and they inserted the cervidil in Merrie. Her contractions started becoming more regular (1-2 minutes apart) and intense about an hour later and they took it out after another hour. Unfortunately, her cervix exhibited no change even several hours later. At 4 am they started a low dose of pitocin. We were moved to a big room at 5. Neither of us slept a bit all night. She was maybe at 2 cm at 8:30 am so there was little progress, but she finally took some morphine, which helped her considerably. In fact she was able to nap on and off for a couple hours. The doctor broke her water at 11. She was still about 2 but noticeably thinner. She started having the pain in her thighs about 11:30 and very rough contractions in her back from 1:30 pm on. Merrie was even going to get an epidural until we checked her again at 2:15. Thankfully, she was dialating very quickly then, and Samuel was born at 2:38 pm with 5 big pushes. He was 5’13” & 19” and went to NICU since she had just had a shot of demoral and he came out with the cord around his neck. Here is his very tired mother (superwoman - 16 hours of contractions an avg of 2 min apart!) finally getting to touch him for the first time a few hours later.

Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. (Ps 22:9-11)
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. (1 Sa 3:19)