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It was a cold March morning when my labor went into full blast baby time. My water had not broke and I was throwing up and had diarrhea. I told my husband to call and ambulance because I knew deep down something was not right. The pain was unbelievable! My husband first said, "Let's take a cab;" but, I knew, I had to get to the hospital right away. So, we called the ambulance and they took us to the hospital. I remember getting onto the obgyn floor and as I passed by on the stretcher, a nurse made a remark and said, "How come she had come by ambulance?" It was soon abundantly clear that I had done the right thing. My water had not broken and they told me they would have to break it. Also, because I was screaming, "Knock me out!, Knock me out!" they administered an epidural. I was never so happy to have a needle inserted in me. Finally, they monitored me for awhile only to tell me that they would have to perform a c-section because my child was facing the wrong way and had gone to the bathroom inside the womb. It was critical that they perform the c-section to save both our lives. I was in shock for most of it however, I was shaking so much when they wanted to hand our child to me that I had to have my husband hold him because I was afraid to drop him. I was in recovery for a long while and didn't know that I was having a reaction to the morphine they had administered to me. Finally, my child was in the nursery and I was back at my bed. I suddenly broke out into a rash and began to itch like crazy. The nurse quickly administered a dose of Benedryl and I began only to feel pain. It was very difficult to hold my child because resting him on my stomach was so painful. Slowly, I began to adapt and the pain lessened somewhat. When I arrived home, I was using a walker as I had not been very mobile prior to delivery. After a couple of weeks, I was back on my feet. It took me a year to recuperate fully and no one had told me that I could exercise that area and no one told me that I would loose feeling in that area. I wish they had as I felt very disproportionate and felt as though something was wrong with me. Finally, after that first year, I realized that my body was what it was and I had a beautiful baby boy to be thankful for and I could accept myself for what I was. So, P.S. to all you beautiful ladies out there, you can get your figure back somewhat and you will have some feelings in that area around the second year. Enjoy your baby!

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