Let me start telling you that it only took us a month to get pregnant after we decided we wanted a baby. I know. We are one of those really blessed couples.

By the end of June 2002 (three and a half years after we'd been married) we decided it was time. I stopped taking the pill. By the end of July, our beautiful baby boy was on his way.

When we found out, we were really happy and amazed that it took us just a month. Making the story short, nine months passed without any problems. Just a little bit of morning sickness from week 8 to week 11, and that was it.

On April 10, 2003, (by this time I was 38 weeks pregnant) we went to the doctor for my weekly checkup. Were we surprised when the doctor told me that my blood pressure was high and that I had protein in my urine, which are symptoms of pre-eclampsia. He said that I was going to have my baby that day.

I was 2 centimeters dilated and 70 percent effaced without having any kind of pain. That was cool!

My mom was coming all the way from my home country down in South America at 2:30 that afternoon. At least she was going to be able to make it in time.

By 11:30 a.m. the doctor sent me to labor and delivery to have some tests done to see if I could go home. Something in my blood wasn't right, so they made me stay. It came to be that the platelets were low. By 1:30 p.m. they started Pitocin.

At 2:30 p.m. after a really long flight my mom got directly from the airport to the hospital. That was one of the happiest moments, since it was almost two years since the last time I saw her.

At 5:30 p.m. the doctor came and broke my waters, which sped things up. By 9:30 p.m. I was 5 centimeters dilated. I couldn't deal with the pain anymore, so I asked for an epidural.

I thought that it was going to be the greatest thing ever, but it wasn't. It helped with the contractions in my tummy but not with my back labor. And worse, I couldn't move my legs.

The doctor thought that I was going to have my baby by 1 a.m. But hours and hours passed and nothing happened. The epidural man came three times during the night to increase the epidural, which made the pain go away for a little bit, and then I would start suffering again.

By 7:30 a.m. I was complete and started pushing. Two hours passed and no baby. It came to be that he was facing sideways (that was the reason for the constant pain in my rear end). He wasn't pushing hard enough, my uterus wasn't contracting hard enough and I was exhausted.

By 9 a.m. the doctor told me that he was going to try forceps. If they didn't work I was going to go for a Cesarean section. I really didn't want to have a C-section.

He tried one time with the forceps and nothing happened. Then he did an episiotomy and tried again. After making my baby crown he let me push my baby out.

So at 9:19 a.m. (after 20 hours of labor) the most beautiful baby boy was born. Santiago Daniel Espinola was 7 pounds, 5 ounces and 20 inches long with a head full of black hair.

I felt great, happy and tired. The nurse started to massage my tummy. After the placenta was out I started to hemorrhage really badly, without my noticing, of course. Many nurses were running from one side to the other, but I only thought this might be the normal procedure.

The doctor had to perform an emergency D&C because a little piece of the placenta remained on one of the walls of the uterus. I remember being there but thinking that he was only stitching me up. After being in the ICU for three hours, I was moved to my recovery room. We were able to go home two days later.

Thanks to all the prenatal vitamins that I used to take every single day, the iron level in my blood was so good that I didn't need a transfusion. Thank goodness! So for all the future mommies around, please take your vitamins. They are really important for you and your babies!

Four months later, Santiago is 18 pounds and 25 inches long. He's in the 90 to 95 percentile on the growth chart, so it means that he's a big boy. He is the joy of our lives, and I'm sure I can do it all over again. Good luck to all of you, and thanks for reading our story.