My first son was born in 2001. I was 3 months pregnant before figuring it out, but with my second child I got pregnant on November 12, 2002. I knew I was pregnant right away because I got sick right away.

I had a good pregnancy. I was due on August 5, but I was not opening or softening up at all. I asked to be induced because I said that they would anyway. The doctor would not do anything.

During the last four weeks of pregnancy I tried natural stuff to start my labor. On the 6th I went and walked at Mall of America and I walked and walked. I ate spicy food and I took blue and black cohosh. It did nothing.

On the 7th of August I started to throw up and have contractions. I went into the hospital because I could not keep anything down. I was severely dehydrated and they gave me fluid. They sent me home after being in the hospital for 12 hours. I went to my doctor on the 8th and the doctor said that I needed to be induced because I was low on fluid.

I went into the hospital at 7 p.m. on the 8th of August, and I called my doula to come and be with me. The doctor told me that I would labor like it was my first time because I had a Cesarean section with my first child.

The nurse put in Cervidil (and the bed broke that I was to use) and I had that in all night.

The next day, the 9th of August, we started a Pitocin drip at 8 a.m. I was on it all day and not really progressing, but the baby was fine.

The nurses at St. Johns Hospital in Minnesota let me walk around and labor in the tub and just checked me once in a while. The evening of the 9th they took me off of Pitocin and gave me Cervidil again. At 2 a.m. in the morning I went into active labor. I labored from 2 a.m. till 10 a.m. when I finally reached 5 centimeters and was able to get a epidural.

I had been expecting that the contractions on Pitocin would hurt more than normal contractions but they did not. My active labor hurt the most.

I started to push at 12 p.m. and I pushed until 4 p.m. The doctor told me that I was going to need some help. I could have a C-section or they could use forceps on the baby. I decided to use forceps.

I kept pushing while they set up and finally at 5:15 p.m. on the 10th of August I delivered with the help of forceps a 7-pound, 5-ounce, 20-inch-long, curly-red-haired, blue-eyed baby boy named JonMarc Joseph.

What was so funny about the whole thing is that the head nurse came in and asked me which nurse I wanted to have: the first nurse who had put the Cervidil in on the 8th of August or a different nurse. I chose my first nurse that I had on August 8th. It was really neat to have her as my nurse.

It took the doctor two hours to stitch me up because I tore front to back even though I had an episiotomy done and I tore in the vagina area. Seven weeks later the doctor told me that he could not tell I had ever had a baby.