I arrived at the hospital at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 02-03-04, for my Cesarean section. They were behind because of emergency sections and we had to wait for about an hour to get into a room.

We got back into the room and I changed into a gown and they tried to start an IV. I had not been able to eat or drink in about 24 hours at that point and I was a bit dehydrated. After two nurses tried four times and missed, anesthesia came in and got it on the first try.

They started my epidural (which hurt so bad) and the doctor was great. He talked to me the entire time and was right on top of my blood pressure (one of the problems I had last time). Every time it fell even a bit he gave me medication to bring it back up. I did not get sick even once!

The epidural worked great this time and I felt nothing!

At 7:17 p.m. baby Amanda Marie was born. She was 6 pounds, 7 ounces, 18.5 inches (way smaller than I thought. I was thinking she would be 8 pounds!) Apgars of 8 and 9 and very pink!

There was meconium in the fluid and she did need to have a bit of oxygen, but other then that there were no problems at all!

I had to spend four hours in recovery as they discovered I was bleeding way worse then normal and was passing giant clots (too much info?). I had to have my uterus massaged (not fun at all) and was given a ton of Pitocin to make me contract to help with the bleeding.

At 11 p.m. I was sent up to my room with IV fluids containing the nasty Pitocin (I had three bags total) and my epidural line kept in place to control the pain. The next day the bleeding was back to normal and I was able to get up and walk around.

My incision was much worse this time than it was last time. I had staples this time (15 of them) and last time I had surgical glue. At one week post partum it hurt so bad I had to go back to the doctor. It turns out it opened up inside and the blood just sat there, and, as the doctor put it, rotted and things got infected.

They had to take out the staples and pack the incision with surgical packing and leave it open to close from the inside out. I can not tell you how horrible this was and how sick I was for four weeks after.