I was 10 days overdue with my first child when my OB/GYN decided to schedule a cesarean section because the head would not engage and the baby looked rather large according to an ultrasound. I was shocked when the word cesarean was brought up. I expected to go through labor like everyone else. I didn't even think of what I'd do if I had a C-section because I was so sure everything was going to go naturally.

So two days later, and now 12 days overdue, I walked into our town's hospital, scheduled for a C-section. I was so nervous and excited that I even put the wrong date on my admitting papers and even accidentally dropped my urine sample into the toilet.

I am not scared of needles, so prepping for surgery was easy for me. The thing I was most nervous about was the spinal block.

When I finally had enough fluids in me, the entire C-section crew was present and everything was prepped, I got to head to the operating room. Instead of being wheeled on a bed, I walked. Even though I was so big, I kind of waddled. I figured that it might be a little while before I walked normally.

I sat on the operating table and one of the OBs held my hands and talked to me while I was given my spinal block, which wasn't bad at all! I then felt my legs become heavy and they laid me down on the table.

All of a sudden, my blood pressure dropped and my heart rate increased. I was saying, I want to puke. I want to puke. Then the kind woman who gave me the spinal block put something in my IV and I felt much better!

Finally they put the curtain up and my mother walked in, wearing scrubs. I was talking to her and finally felt the courage to ask, Are they cutting yet? The anesthesiologist said, Yes. That explained the weird tugging I felt.

Finally the anesthesiologist said, You're going to feel pulling in your chest now. And oh, did I! Just when I felt like I was going to freak out, at 8:11 a.m. (6/3/05) I heard my baby crying and someone say, It's a boy!

I started crying (in a happy way!), knowing that my son was finally here and that I would soon be holding him in my arms. The attending pediatrician rushed him to the table and one of the nurses was pounding on his back. I guess he took a big gulp of amniotic fluid on his way out. So they wrapped him up after tending to him at the table for a while, let me kiss his forehead and took him to the special care nursery.

I lay there on the table, letting the OBs/surgeons finish their job. I became hypertensive and the oh-so-kind anesthesiologist put something in my IV again. The nursery called the operating room and someone in the operating room yelled, Nine pounds, 12 ounces, 21 1/2 inches!

I didn't get to hold my son until seven hours later. He had to be on oxygen for a little while due to the water on his lungs.

Gavin Caleb is only 1 1/2 weeks old right now, but I already couldn't imagine my life without him.