The beautiful Melissa Gardner and Sebastian (14 months).
Melissa and her husband were at a point in their lives where they felt really ready to have a child and were able to provide. She learned she was pregnant in early November and had taken a new job to begin after the Thanksgiving. She started work at a residential treatment center for children at risk for abuse or who had been abused and part of their protocol required restraint training. She asked for accommodations due to her pregnancy and was told she'd need a doctors note for them to consider it. She wasn't able to get into her doctor until she was at least 8 weeks along so she had to move forward with restraint training. When she finally got a letter from her doctor requesting she be exempt from performing restraints due to her pregnancy she was fired two days later.
The loss of her job really shook Melissa up. She lost not only the validation that comes from a career but the financial stability she had been counting on. Though the loss of her job created a lot of emotional turmoil her pregnancy was healthy and went very well. The decided to induce at 41 weeks due to Sebastian's size and Melissa had begun to get really anxious. She was induced in the morning and 14 hours in she decided to have an epidural so she could get some sleep. She ultimately delivered with forceps assistance but hemorrhaged after delivery.
In her recollection of events there was a time that her son stopped crying but her husband told her it wasn't that he had stopped crying but that she had lost consciousness. She remembers waking up and being able to tell them where she was and everything was okay. Melissa's transition to motherhood has been really seamless, labor intensive but more amazing than she could have imagined.
Melissa has recently found a new job and already received her first promotion. The validation has allowed her to fell like she's found her place to rest and has healed some of the pain from the past.
"I felt so alone. I don't want anyone else to feel so alone."