It all started at 2 o' clock in the morning four days after my due date, one day before my induction was to begin. I woke up with pain in my back and upper abdomen. It felt like a rubber band was being squeezed around me very tightly and I thought I just had an upset stomach from the Chinese I ate the night before.

Once I hit the bathroom and realized that I didn't have heartburn, I wasn't feeling sick anymore, and most of the pain was actually in my back, it hit me – here comes labor! Here comes my baby girl!

I sat at home for seven hours on a heating pad timing my contractions, handling them like a pro, or so my mother-in-law kept telling me. After they finally reached five minutes apart, I called my mom and my husband at work to tell them they might want to head to the hospital, because these contractions were getting closer together and pretty intense. As my mother-in-law and I made our way to labor and delivery in the hospital, I realized that they were almost three minutes apart and I really wasn't thinking straight.

After three more hours like this, and only dilated to 5 centimeters, I couldn't take it anymore and took the epidural. After that they broke my water, and four hours later I gave birth to my 8-pound, 5-ounce baby girl with only 15 minutes of pushing.

That said, everything was normal. My pregnancy, my birth, my baby, and me – everything was normal.

I went home two days later, early even. My bleeding was normal for about a week and a half. Then at my daughter's 2-week checkup the bottom fell out. I started bleeding heavily that morning, but the nurse said it was normal and I was fine, so we went to the pediatrician. I started to get light-headed and started passing clots. I know you pass them after a normal pregnancy, but I lost count after 12 in an hour.

I called that nurse four more times and I think she got the point when I called her crying from the pain. While I was getting ready to leave I passed out in my bedroom floor. I was probably soaking three or four pads in an hour. When I woke up, I got my husband and baby and jumped in the car to go to my doctor's office an hour early. I tried to walk inside and almost didn't make it. I could only walk a little and then I would blackout.

Once they finally saw me and did a pelvic exam and an ultrasound, they stole my Sprite and threw it in the trash. The doctor proceeded to tell me I needed surgery and so they did a D&C because they thought they had left part of the placenta in my uterus and I wasn't going to stop bleeding unless they did this. I left the hospital two days later with anemia and only had about half the blood in my body I should have had. I was a ghost.

I thought the worst was over. Wrong. One week later I started to have heavy bleeding again and was cramping really badly. My back hurt so bad the only place I was comfortable was on the floor.

When I went back to the doctor's office, she explained to me that what was happening to me was very rare. I had a condition called placenta accreta. This is when your placenta embeds itself too deeply into your uterus instead of just lightly attaching to the uterine wall. Most people find out while they are delivering the placenta. I found out three weeks later.

After another transvaginal ultrasound my doctor told me something that scared me to death. She was first going to send me to the hospital for a few days on some medication to try and save my uterus. I spent three and a half days – nearly four – getting two separate shots in my hip every four hours, my blood taken every six and getting two units of blood put into me, because they were afraid I would bleed too much.

If the drugs didn't work they would have to take my uterus out at a young 19. I wanted more kids. I was devastated at the mere thought of it. I just kept looking at my baby and feeling bad because I might not be able to give her a brother or sister, and I would never be pregnant again. That broke my heart because I really enjoyed pregnancy.

One drug tightened my uterus and made me cramp pretty badly. The other, called Methotrexate, was to get rid of and deplete the piece of placenta still in my uterus. I have never seen so many needles in my life. I really hate needles.

Now, I'm at home with my baby, three weeks later, still not able to go back to work. I still have my uterus and the capability of having children – something I will never forget my doctors for. They caution me from having children again, but I may try a few years down the road. What really gets me is that the risk factors for having accreta are being older, having multiple previous Cesarean sections, and placenta previa and many end up having their babies premature. I had none of these, so I suppose it could happen to anyone. I ended up with a healthy, beautiful daughter.

I just wanted to let someone who has had this same problem know they aren't alone and that sometimes it can be fixed. It was definitely a very trying experience, and I know it has helped me to hear other women's stories and gather hope while I was in the, "We'll have to wait and see" phase. I hope I helped someone else.