I found out I was pregnant in October 1996. I was 20 years old. It was totally unexpected. I had a due date of July 4, 1997. I told everybody, who were all initially upset. But eventually they were very happy. My boyfriend at the time was not excited at all. He wanted nothing to do with him. Eventually, he came around.

I found out around Valentine's Day I was having a boy. My boyfriend then came around when he found out it was a boy. He had a daughter from a previous relationship.

Pregnancy went well with no problems. My due date came and went. The week after my due date they did an ultrasound because they feared a big baby. The ultrasound said the baby would be about 7.5 pounds. No big deal. They decided to let me labor myself.

Finally, on July 16, my water broke at 4 a.m. We called the doctor. Since I wasn't having any contractions, he told me to go get some rest and call at 9 a.m. when the office opened.

I went in at 9 a.m. Nothing. I was barely a fingertip dilated. So he sent me home and advised me to be at the hospital at 4 p.m. for induction.

I didn't think I was having any contractions, but when they hooked me up to the machine, I was contracting every three minutes. But they weren't painful at all. So at 5 p.m., they hooked me up to Pitocin.

I was fine for a few hours. Then the pain was unbearable. I had my epidural, and everything was great.

By midnight I was only 4 centimeters dilated. I slept the whole night without any problems. They woke me up and checked me. Nothing. So they said they had to take the epidural off, as it was slowing down my progress.

Once it wore off, I thought I was going to die. I couldn't handle the pain at all. Finally, around 6 a.m., the doctor told me that he was going to do a Cesarean section if he wasn't born by 9 a.m. He checked me around 6:30 a.m., and I was complete.

I started pushing around 7 a.m. and pushed for about two hours. I did not want a C-section. The doctor was worried he was just too big for me to push. Well, once I heard that, I gave it my all and then some.

After two hours of pushing, and 29 hours of labor, my son, Inuyash Gardener, was born at 9:06 a.m., weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces and 22 1/2 inches! He was huge! All the doctors kept telling me I had delivered a baby the size of a 3-month-old. My body didn't like the fact he came out vaginally. I had over 50 stitches, as I tore so badly!

All the pain was worth the outcome. I broke things off with his father. He left when my son was 4 months old and we haven't seen him since.

I met somebody a few months later. He fell in love with not only me, but my son. In October 1999, we were married, and my husband adopted my son.

Inuyasha is now 6 years old and is wonderful. He is in first grade and perfect! I'm 6 months pregnant with my second baby boy. I'll name him Jaden. I just felt him kick.