I was 19 years old when I meet the father of my baby. We started living together on November 21, 2006, and I was working as an ESL aide at an elementary school. Immediately after that I got pregnant. I couldn't believe it until I was really getting bigger and bigger.

Then I started to have all those "great" symptoms: nausea, vomiting, tired all the time – now I really believed I was pregnant. After only working from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. I was coming home exhausted. My whole nausea and vomiting went on for 5 months; I never thought it was going to be over.

The next three months went OK until the 8th month. I went in for a regular checkup. I had a urine test and found out that I was throwing protein in my urine. My doctor told me I was getting pre-eclampsia so she told me to rest a lot and I had to come in once a week to check for protein and stress tests.

As my due was getting closer I was losing more and more protein so I had to start coming in twice a week for blood, urine and stress tests. When I had my first ultrasound I was too early to know whether I was having a boy or a girl. So it was all going to be a surprise until my doctor sent me to get another ultrasound when I was 8 1/2 months; then I found out I was having a baby girl.

My due date was September 2, 2007. The days passed and I wasn't having any contractions. I had a last visit three days after my due date. Then my doctor decided to induce because I was losing too much protein.

I went into the hospital on Friday, September 7, 2007. By then I was dilated to 1 centimeter. They induced me at 11 a.m. At this time I was only 1 1/2 centimeters. I started getting mild contractions at 3 p.m. They weren't that bad until 6 p.m. At this time I was at 3 centimeters. Now they really started to bother me.

All I had eaten that day was oatmeal in the morning before going to the hospital. So I was really hungry but I couldn't eat anything.

Then the doctor told me that she was going to probably break my water. She came in at 10 p.m. I was checked again and was 4 centimeters. When she checked me I guess she went too far and broke my water accidently.

About this time the contractions were like 40 seconds apart and hurt really badly. I was getting some pain medicine through my IV. I can remember that I was so tired that I felt like I was passing out during each contraction.

My mom and my boyfriend were there with me the whole time even thought I sometimes got cranky. My brother and sister were also there. My brother was telling me when a contraction was coming and when it was going away. I was trying to go through all of this without an epidural. I got up to walk like at 3 a.m. and I remember telling my mom, crying, that I couldn't take it anymore, that when they checked me again and I wasn't ready I was going to ask for an epidural.

Then at 5 in the morning the doctor checked me again and I was only 5 centimeters. I got really upset because I had gone through the whole night with horrible contractions to only dilate 1 centimeter more.

Finally I asked the doctor for an epidural. Right after it was put in I couldn't feel anything. By the way, a lot of people told me that it hurt when you get an epidural, but all I felt was a little pressure. Then I finally got some sleep.

I woke up like about 2 p.m. because I was feeling some pain. The doctor had told the nurse to lower my epidural dose so I could feel my legs a little. She lowered it too much and I was again feeling a lot of pain. I was checked again at 3 p.m. and I was dilated to 9 1/2 centimeters. At this time I was feeling an urge to push and was shaking and got nauseous. I vomited twice. At this time the doctor told me that the baby was already coming down and ready but I was not yet fully dilated, that I was probably going to have to have a Cesarean section.

The truth is, I really got mad when he told me that because I hadn't gone through 24 hours of labor to just have a C-section.

Finally at 4 p.m. she checked me again and I was 10 centimeters, thank God. Everyone was out of the room when the doctor came in to check me except my mom and my sister. The nurse told me that if I felt like I needed to push to do so. Then suddenly the doctor and all these nurses came in. I told my sister to hurry and get my boyfriend. My mom grabbed one of my legs and my boyfriend the other. My sister was also in the room; she almost fainted.

When I was pushing my boyfriend kept telling me that he could see the head, to keep trying, and so I did. After only pushing for a half hour my baby was born (I thought that the pushing was going to be longer, thank God it wasn't). When her shoulders were coming out they got stuck and tore me. I had a third degree tear.

When I finally had her in my arms this amazing love just rushed through me. I named my beautiful baby girl Giselle. She came into this world weighting 7 pounds, 12 ounces. This was the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world. When I saw her small eyes stare straight into mine I realized that those 25 hours of labor were worth every second.

My baby is 6 months now and she is the light of my life.