The whole process was terrifying. In the OR itself, there were two anesthetists for me, an ob-gyn and resident to do the surgery, a paediatrician for the baby, and more nurses than I could count. They inserted the IV in my hand, gave me a few shots in my back to numb the skin, then one spinal to freeze me from the midsection down.

The spinal doesn't knock out all sensation! I still felt pins and needles all over my legs, and pressure and movement in my torso. They worked so fast though - I didn't even realize they'd started until I felt a lot of weird pulling and pushing, then there was a feeling of lightness, and my daughter was born. They grabbed my husband, brought her to be checked and dried off, and then straight away she was brought to me and put next to my face under the drape. I held her until we all went to recovery together.

I'm now almost a week post-partum. Still sore and weak from the c-section, but Advil lets me tolerate it well enough. My daughter is healthy, happy, and in the process of figuring out how to breastfeed, as well as chowing down a ton of formula until my milk production catches up to her.

The doctor's best guess is that she was breeched because she's just big. Her birth weight was almost 9lbs and she's incredibly long - long torso, long legs. There wasn't enough space for her to turn on her own, and my uterus couldn't stretch enough to let the ECV turn her.

Ada Maria, or Éada Máire in Irish. Named for my grandmother and my mother. Glad she finally made it, no matter how she got here.