I'll preface by saying it sounds bad, but it wasn't.
Out of interest, what are your current plans for your son for when you go into hospital? I was unfortunately one of those ladies who took ages to get to the delivery stage. So definitely make plans for it taking a couple of days.
I was being induced at 37 weeks due to pre-eclampsia (same as first). I started with a completely closed cervix, and a single gel got me to 2cm within 6 hours. Straight into ARM territory. However due to a bit of a baby boom and the ever present staffing issues, I was unable to be taken down to continue the process until 4 days later. Fortunately I wasn't in any way shape or form in labour, so I was perfectly comfortable. But it was depressing having to wait. Especially as I could only see DD out on the hospital grounds (no children allowed on the wards). The midwives were so good about keeping me updated, and I was really well cared for.
Finally there was space on delivery suite, and the induction continued. Had monitoring, waters broken, and (as before) labour didn't start, so I had the drip. I'd coped on the drip before without an epidural. As the expectation is that second children come quicker and easier, I felt I'd be ok without one again. And I was. I was able to move around and reposition myself, and managed on gas and air for a long while. The drip was even maxed out.
Everything was going great. Except I was making very little progress. Baby was still high, and after ~10 hours on the drip I'd only gone from 2cm to 5cm. With my first, in the same time frame I was nearly 10cm by this point. Things were really starting to hurt, and I was getting tired, so I asked for the epidural. As it was handover, and there was already someone waiting, I had to wait a couple of hours. The drip was turned off, but contractions continued, which was quite unpleasant.
Epidural was inserted, and much relief was had. Drip was left off for an hour to see if baby would passively descend, then put on again for an hour to see if any progress was made. I slept. Best 2 hours I've ever had. Unfortunately after those 2 hours baby had not descended, zero progress had been made, and there were now minor signs of distress on the CTG. So the decision was made to have a caesarean.
Caesarean revealed that baby was back to back, and was trying to look up. He was stuck, and I would never have been able to deliver vaginally. I don't regret attempting the induction in the slightest. The malposition was always going to occur, and there was no way to predict it would happen ahead of time. Other than the wound taking its sweet time healing, recovery has been fine, and I now have a perfect 3 month old.
I know it sounds awful, but it really wasn't, even at the time. I felt calm and in control throughout. I hope your induction goes more like my first. Drip was needed, but after 11 hours I delivered my DD with a minor second degree tear. Best of luck!