Our Birth Story

Well as promised this post will be dedicated to the journey of the birth of our little girl.

I'll start at the very beginning! Last October Taylor and I were so excited to find out that we were expecting...we hadn't really been trying for very long..and it was news we just couldn't wait to share. However we decided we wanted to wait until we saw my Dad at Christmas to tell him in person before we would tell anyone. Three days after Thanksgiving I lost the baby. Nothing can prepare you for something like that, I don't think it matters when in your pregnancy you lose a child, its a loss non the same and it hurts so much deeper than you could ever imagine. I still think about that baby, someday ill meet him/her, that i can be sure of.

Then something happened. A couple days before Christmas I was at work and I just had this "feeling"...I couldn't shake it. For some reason I actually had a pregnancy test in my purse..random, yes. I snuck into the bathroom..leaving the sales floor unattended..oops..and took the test. I carried it into our back room at work and left it there for 5 minutes before I went back to check it.

Positive.

I couldn't believe it, even though somehow I already knew what it was going to say. I called Taylor and blurted it out while running up and down the hallway of the dressing room area. That was the longest shift of my life! We decided to tell all of our close friends and family this time, the more prayers we had headed this babies way the better! We did ask everyone to keep it off Facebook because we still planned on telling my Dad a couple weeks later when we went to visit him in California.

Everything was going smooth the first couple weeks, we got to California and told my dad the first night we were there. Everyone was so excited!! While visiting we made a day trip to San Francisco. We had a great day sightseeing and eating great food, that night we went to dinner and I just wasn't feeling right. I went to the bathroom and realized I was spotting. My stomach dropped, it was the exact same time frame as the first baby. I texted my sister and Taylor from the bathroom, and then anyone else I could think of who could pray for us. That night when we got back to my dads house I remember falling on the bathroom floor begging God to spare my baby. I prayed and prayed and cried and cried. Ive actually never told anyone that so you should all feel very privileged! ha! I went to bed feeling confident the Lord would do what he saw fit for me, and that he hears our prayers and answers accordingly. I woke up the next day to no spotting...God is so good.

My pregnancy is how would you say....eventful!! The nausea that started the first week after i found out followed me through several months. I would up on some pretty good medication that kicked it as long as i took it in time!! At around 28 weeks I started having some cramps at work, I was pretty nervous because the day before i got overheated during a family photo shoot, so I called the doctor and they told me to come in right away. Turns out I was having contractions. My body was trying to deliver prematurely. Dr Ward put me on procardia to stop the contractions and put me on bed rest. I had to go in every tuesday to be monitored, and have my cervix checked to see how far effaced I was. I wound up on bed rest for 8 weeks, and at every appointment I was further and further effaced. Leighton was extremely low, she had already moved through my pelvic bone by 34 weeks, something most babies haven't even done by labor.

THE BIG DAY. I had been having strong painful contractions for several hours, so my sister Erin drove me to the hospital where Taylor met us. We didn't call anyone, we wanted to make sure this "was it" before we got everyone all worked up. I was 90% effaced, and dialated to a 2, the nurse sent me home and told me to come back when the contractions were stronger, and closer together. A whole day went by...a long..painful day. I did EVERYTHING you could think of, ate spicy food, walked about a million miles..everything. I decided to just let it go, and wait on her to make her appearance when she was ready. August 19th, around 3:30 in the morning some pretty serious contractions woke me up. I laid there for about an hour timing them on my handy dandy contraction counter app I downloaded to my iPhone haha! 5 mins apart exactly, some coming in at 4 minutes. In typical Megan fashion I got up without waking Taylor and went to the bathroom to do my makeup and hair! When I did wake him up he asked me about 30 times if I was SURE. I guess I can't blame him, this whole process was getting a little ridiculous haha! When i got to the hospital i was 100% effaced, and dilated to a 3.

I waited for the epidural until I was at a 6, for some reason I just wanted to feel the contractions and wasn't comfortable getting it to early into labor. When I finally did get it I was feeling pretty good! Everything was moving quickly, It felt like it all happened in about 3 hours, before I know it it was 5:30, I was fully dilated and ready to push!! After about 15 minutes of pushing Dr Ward came in, Leighton's head was turned sideways and kind of lodged in my pelvic bone, so Dr Ward opted to use the vacuum to get her out. I was a little nervous about it, but I knew God had his hand on her. A couple minutes later Leighton Erin Gibbs entered the world, at 7lbs3ounces, 19.5 inches long, and as beautiful as can be :)
Taylor went with her to the nursery and I stayed behind to get "cleaned up"

Well....thats when it all went downhill. Dr Ward looked at me and said " Oh no, she ripped you all the way through" This is when I was EXTREMELY grateful for my wonderful epidural that worked so well. It took him longer to sew me up than it did to deliver Leighton. By the time he was done my body was shaking, I was dizzy and hot, and felt this unnerving urge to go to the bathroom. The nurse helped me in and left me in there while she changed my sheets. The next several hours are a blur, I know I almost passed out in the bathroom...it took 2 nurses to get me into a wheel chair and then back into the bed. I was then loaded up with pain killers and sent to my new room.

I nursed Leighton every 3 hours that night, and then sent her straight back to the nursery seeing as i was to drugged to take care of her. The next night she stayed with us, and that afternoon we were released to go home!

This whole journey of motherhood has been a roller coaster of highs and lows. Everyday is something different, a new blessing, a new challenge, and every day I can't wait to see what the day holds for me, Taylor, and our beautiful little girl.