Honestly, the epidural itself didn't hurt. The lidocaine they inject you with before they insert the epidural slightly burns, but the epidural is only uncomfortable if they stick you in the wrong place.
For me, my epidural didn't work. I felt EVERYTHING. Not even five minutes after they removed the epidural I was up walking around, when I shouldn't have been walking for a couple hours. Labor pains are not fun. The most upsetting part of the whole experience was that they attempted the epidural seven times before they had somewhat success.
According to the anesthesiologists, I have a slight case of scoliosis, which makes sense since the lower half of my back has never popped, and coincidentally that's where the epidural is supposed to be placed. Because my epidural didn't work, and I felt everything, I cried like a baby and cussed like a sailor at the same time. They gave me some extra pain medicine that I could use every thirty minutes, but it didn't help but for a couple minutes at a time.
I was lucky, I had Blake supporting me the whole way, and the poor guy had to go to the bathroom the whole 9 hours I was in labor, yet he stood right by me, letting me almost break his hand every contraction.
The most relaxing part of labor was definitely the pushing, ironically. Pushing through the contractions puts pressure on the pain and subdues it for the remainder of the push. Maybe that's why the pushing part of my labor was so much shorter than average.
Don't be afraid to get an epidural. Don't get me wrong, the needle is huge but you don't see it. It stings about as much as a wasp sting, and if it works, it works wonders. I was one of the unlucky ones that didn't get the opportunity of a working epidural, but even still with my next pregnancy, I will definitely get another in hopes it'll work.
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