Wow, thank you everybody for such positive responses!

AliciaK - I hope that this hasn't put you off!! Truly though - I felt the same way reading other's experiences - good and bad - knowing that we are strong women and can get through anything really helps. Please don't think of my experience as a 'not so good' one though - it was amazingly good in its own weird way!

Lulu - I'm sorry to send you running screaming from the computer!! Thank you so much for your positive thoughts - I sure didn't feel like the ultimate definition of a mother at four am today when I fleetingly wondered if he would fit in the microwave (just kidding, honestly, no need to call protective services...) so this helped to bring it all back into perspective. It's really unfortunate that so many women feel like they have not succeeded in birth because they have been unable to give birth conventionally for whatever reason - the medical term "failure to progress' doesn't help! I'm lucky that I don't have feelings of disappointment and my heart goes out to those who do, it must be so hard.

Bindy - I'm not in Brisbane (beautiful city though), I'm in Cairns. Good luck with bringing Madeleine into the world - not long to go now! I wonder if she'll be a new year's baby?

Trish - I think the person who said that about the uterus realised that her choice of phrasing was a bit of a faux pas - because she apologised straight away and corrected herself. My first thought was that they'd had to perform a hysterectomy, but the casual way in which she said it made me wonder if I'd heard right. Maybe the reason they mentioned it was because I was already nauseous and about to vomit which they wanted to avoid so that movement of my stomach muscles it didn't joggle my insides (or outsides!!) all around. Or maybe they were just trying to explain some of the weirder sensations that accompanied it. It was all a little too surreal to be disturbing but I guess they didn't really know what my reaction would be. I had told them that I'd prefer to know what was happening throughout the surgery so I guess they might not have said anything otherwise.

Chon - sorry to get you worried - it was a bit of a cliffhanger mid way through though! I should have written it in episodes - could have been like a little BB soap!