Scarleteen

Okay so I've read that birth control pills should be taken at the same time daily or you're less protected from pregnancy. Also, the first and last active pills are the most important pills in a pack because the 7 days of placebos (aka 7 days without hormones) is the max you can go without risking ovulation, so missing the first or last pills will increase that time to 8 days of no hormones.
But what is considered a missed birth control pill? Scarleteen has told me about the 12 hour "grace period" which means as long as you take a pill within 12 hours of your usual time you'll be fine, but other reliable resources like Empowher.com told be I should be fine as long as I take my pill within 2-3 hours of my usual time. (I think I believe Scarleteen more sthough since you have proven your credibility multiple times in many ways)
All of this still leaves me in a gray area, though because:
-I wasn't able to take my pill until 4 hours after my usual time, not 2-3
-It was the very first pill of my pack, which means I went 7 days and 4 hours without hormones, which is beyond the max time so I may have risked ovulating
-It was only my second pack so it's not like the hormones are used to being in my system

I'm just very confused because I've asked and searched all over but there doesn't seem be be any answer to my specific questions. Everyone else seems to have either taken it entire days late, have been on the pill for years, or was 4 hours late for a pill in the middle of the pack. None of this matched me. Please help me, thank you all very much!

Have you brought these questions, and so many others you seem to have, to your prescribing physician? If not, I can't encourage you to do that enough. Giving a patient information about their medication and how to use it is part of the job of anyone prescribing anything to you, and it's on you, as a patient, to ask them what questions you have. You can either make an appointment for these questions, call them, or, if your provider uses an online chart tool, send them these questions. You can also ask your pharmacist who fills this prescription these questions.

You can also consult the patient information leaflet that comes with your pills. That leaflet usually contains information like what a missed pill is (which is one not taken within 24 hours of when it should be based on when you took the last one).

We can't speak for what other sites say, and we ask users please don't bring that to us. I also would question where you're looking: that site you linked to is highly corporate and not focused on reproductive health or contraception.

You know what we have to say about this: the combined pill has a 12-hour grace period. But since you continue to have so many concerns about your pill, please make your next step a visit or call with your healthcare provider, either to get these questions answered OR to discuss a method you feel more confident in, as a lack of confidence in your method and your ability to use it may be one of the things at root of this constant anxiety we keep seeing you bring here. Suffice it to say, I'd also continue to encourage you again to seek out mental healthcare for the chronic anxiety you seem to experience.

But given the sheer volume of these questions, I do need to set a limit with you at this point about continuing to bring them here, especially when you're asking us to give you information we already have in direct services, or which is on our main site.