With my first child I had all these grand plans of natural birth and how much better it was for the baby. I didn't want any medication. I wanted to go into the whirlpool and maybe try a water birth. I went through Lamaze and thought I was all set.

At midnight on January 3 the contractions I had been having for a week had gotten worse and I thought my water had broken. I called the doctor and was told to get to the hospital. So I took a shower, braided my hair, ate a sandwich, then left for the hospital.

At about 7 in the morning I was released because my water hadn't broken all the way. By 9 a.m. I was in back labor and not very happy about being out of the hospital. My doctor had scheduled me for an ultrasound to see how big this baby was, but when I got there, the nurse took one look at me and my five-minute-apart contractions and sent me back to the hospital.

After a few hours in the hospital and little progress it was found out that my lovely daughter had moved sideways a bit. So I got to practice gymnastics during labor. Stand up, one leg up, other leg up, on your knees, bend this way, now bend that way, all to try and get her to move. She wouldn't budge.

At a little before 11 p.m. her heart rate dropped drastically. The doctor informed me that we needed to do a Cesarean section right away.

I was wheeled pretty quickly into the surgery room. The anesthesia guy was wonderful. I actually started to fall asleep before they started to cut. The only problem I had during the delivery was I am really sensitive to medicine and ended up getting sick.

She was born at 11:38 p.m. and the doctors found her cord had been wrapped around her and that she wouldn't have moved no matter what I did. If I had had the ultrasound earlier that day, that would have been seen and I would have had the C-section earlier that day.

My recovery went great. I was up and walking around the day after delivery.

My daughter is wonderful, 7 years old now, and we are expecting a second baby in May. I am leaning toward a repeat C-section as I've had some complications already in this pregnancy. I know this time I'll be able to appreciate the delivery more and I'm so excited.