I was induced!
They started the drip at 5am .Wednesday morning. I went through all of .Wednesday with contractions, but they were uncomfortable. I wasn't writhing in pain or anything. I didn't progress hardly at all that day.
They turned the drip off so I could eat and get a few hours of sleep, then turned it back on at 1am. The contractions picked up and increased steadily, but they were nothing major. They felt like period cramps.
Labor didn't get bad until I hit transition. That was *intense*, and that's when I got my epidural. If I had waited 15 more minutes, I would have had to go natural, because I was pushing 45 minutes later.
My pain tolerance is nonexistant, so I was really surprised that most of my labor was only mildly painful. I honestly compare my contractions to gas/period cramps. Induction, at least for me, wasn't horrible. It just took a while!