The Gillespie Family: And then there were three....

On February 13th, 2014, eight days after our due date, our lives changed forever. You hear that phrase a lot, but I never understood how true it was until now. Our daughter, Piper Grace Gillespie, was born at 6:22pm weighing in at a hefty 9lb 3oz and measuring 21 3/4 inches long (Daddy kept trying to make her longer than that...I think he is hoping for a basketball player). Piper made quite the entrance being 8 days late and coming in the middle of an ice storm. Yes, an ice storm. In Columbia, SC. I think it happens every 10 years...maybe. On Wednesday, February 12th we made our way to Baptist hospital with literally no one else on the roads. They were passable, but barely. Ashley and Birdie wanted to go with us because they were afraid if they didn't go with us around 4pm they wouldn't be able to get to the hospital if I went into labor. We were all 4 giddy heading to the hospital and we left Brady and Avery (also known as Bravery) with Bogey for what would be over 24 hours and he did great! Upon admission, I was already in 'labor' and my cervix was doing it's thing on it's own so Dr. Laffite decided not to do any induction on Wednesday night and just proceed with the pitocin on Thursday morning. We hunkered down for the night. Ashley and mom took over the love seat that folded out and Grant climbed into the hospital bed with me. Egg crates and extra blankets were not available as most of the other hospital rooms were filled with nurses and doctors who couldn't go home because of the ice storm.

Around midnight, Dr. Lafitte changed his mind and ordered for me to take 1/2 tablet of Cytotec to start the induction. I took the medication and had to be hooked back up to all monitors. Needless to say, I got very little sleep. Around 3:50am my water broke (we later found out that it was just one membrane that broke as I had to have my water manually broken later by the doctor) and so we were all up from then on. Grant wasn't feeling well and was actually running fever so we were both thankful that my mom and Ashley were there to help. Fred was my L&D nurse and she was fabulous. They started pitocin around 8:00am and we delivered our sweet joy about 10 hours later and after a grueling day. My epidural was about 2 hours late as 2 of the anesthesiologists for the hospital didn't make it in because of the snow and ice. It also slowed my labor and caused some heart rate issues for Piper, but I'm not sure I could have gone without it. My contractions were very painful and I'm thankful that Ashley and Grant talked me through most of them. I started pushing around 4:30pm and we ultimately had to use the vacuum to get to meet our sweet girl. Dr. Guidice delivered Piper and was fabulous. I was so very thankful to have Grant, Ashley, and my mom in there to help me through one of the most difficult days of my life. Dad, Cyndi, Sandi, Larry, Gavin, and Charlie were all waiting anxiously in the waiting area. What an amazing day! God is so good!

The day after Piper was born (Valentine's Day- G and I ordered take-out from Cola's and had a 'romantic' dinner in the hospital room) there was an earthquake in Edgefield, SC that was felt all across the state. Although neither Grant nor I felt it, it was the first for many of our friends as well as our 1 day old daughter Piper who had already experienced a snow/ice storm and earthquake in SC in less than 1 day! She came into this world ready to shake things up!

We had a lot of fun visitors at the hospital including Piper's cousins!!