Dear Gibson,

You are officially 6 years old.  Man, time has flown!  Since it's your birthday (ok, it was yesterday, but we're celebrating it today!), I want to share with you the story of when you were born...It all began...

On Thursday, January 13, 2005.  I went to the doctor's office to see how things were going, and they gave me terrible news.  It was going to be at least a week before you were ready, they said.  I left the office crushed, and tired.  I was huge, uncomfortable, and really sick of being pregnant!  You were due on Saturday, and I knew that that day was going to come and go with no baby.  Bummed is a total understatement!  The next day, I went to work and planned to be there all day.  But at lunch time, I started feeling really tired.  I asked my boss if I could go home and take a nap, and he said no problem!  See you Monday!  I walked across the street to our apartment, and laid down.  When your dad got home from work, I asked him if he wanted to get the carseat installed in the car, since he was going to have a busy week at school.  He put it in, and for the first time, we felt like this was real!  We're going to have a baby in a week!  It was very exciting.  After my nap, we went to Salt Lake for a concert that Uncle Dillon was playing in.  He had just started playing the drums, and was playing a 'gig' with the members of his class.  We were in the basement of a strip mall, in a dark room with loud music and VERY hard chairs.  Halfway through, I just wasn't feeling right.  I had to stand up and walk around a little bit.  We drove home, and I watched TV for a little while before I went to be around midnight.  Daddy was going to stay up for a while and work on the computer.  Around 2am, he came into bed.  Not long after that, I woke up to (ew, gross) go to the bathroom.  At that point, I realized that (ew, double gross) I was bleeding a little bit.  I called the hospital just to make sure that that was normal, and they said it would be a good idea for me to come in as soon as possible, just to check things out.  I went in and woke up daddy, who wasn't very happy with me since he had just gotten to sleep.  Nevertheless, we gathered up a few things and drove to the hospital.  We checked in, and they put me in triage and hooked me up to all sorts of monitors.  I was 2 centimeters when we got there around 3:30 on Saturday morning, January 15th.  They said they would check me in an hour to see if there was any progress.  At 4:30, they checked and I was still a 2.  The nurse said, "well, let's give it another hour before we send you home."  So I sat there a little bit longer.  When she came back, I was a 4!  She said, "it looks like you're going to have a baby today!"  We called grandpa and grandma and told them to come whenever they could.  They were there about 1/2 hour later, just as we were getting settled in our birthing room.  I had the epidural just before 7, and it all went very smoothly.  After the epidural, I fell right to sleep.  It was the first time I was comfortable in 6 months!  I slept for a few hours, and only woke up every now and then when the nurse came to check on me.  I was making steady progress, and pretty soon you were ready!  The midwife was busy with a few other moms for a while, and so I just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list which made grandma and Auntie very upset!  It was finally my turn, and the midwife came in and woke me up to start pushing.  It was around 11:00 in the morning.  I pushed on and off, because I kept falling asleep between contractions.  The midwife was really laid back, and actually ate her lunch while I was in the middle of pushing!  Jenell asked her if it grossed her out to eat a taco while she was delivering a baby, but she said no.  It was pretty funny!  I pushed and pushed, but you just wouldn't come out.  I think it was because I was a little too relaxed and just wasn't pushing very well.  It's very hard to push out a baby!  But after a while, you were finally coming!  My mom was in front of me, watching everything, and I noticed that she started crying.  I started crying too, and seconds later, at 12:50pm, out you came.  I remember telling the midwife that I didn't want her to lay you on me until you were all cleaned up, but your umbilical cord was very short, only about 14 inches, so there was nowhere for you to go but on me!  You were born with crud in your lungs, so I got just that brief glimpse of you while daddy cut the cord and then you were rushed by the respiratory therapists to the NICU to be monitored to make sure you were breathing correctly.  I didn't see you again until I was settled into the recovery room.  I'll never forget the first time the nurse wheeled you in in that tiny bassinet.  You were so swollen and pink.  I could tell right away that you looked like your daddy.  But there was a little bit of me in there, too.  I was completely in love.  You were like a little piece of heaven, right there in my arms.  You were perfect. 

Every day since then, you have blessed my life.  Watching you grow and being a part of your life has truly changed me.  Thank you for being my baby.

I love you,
Mommy