Lily Elizabeth Griffin

Today marks 3 weeks since Lily was born. It is amazing to think that we have another addition to the family. Lily came a little earlier than we had anticipated, coming exactly 2 weeks before her due date, but we should have anticipated it since most of the other kids came early.

I was sitting at work when my phone rang at 12:16 pm. I picked up the phone and Stacey simply said 'I am having major contractions.' I told her that I was leaving, hung up the phone, and ran out of my office stopping at the door of the attorney across the hall, Jeff Moore, and said that Stacey was having major contractions and I needed to go home. I drove quickly through town and made it home in record time. Stacey was in the kitchen holding onto the counter clearly in pain. But she said that she was having strong contractions and needed to lay down and just wanted me to watch the kids. Stacey had not had a good night sleep the night before, so we both figured she was just tired and needed to relax. She decided to take a shower and after the shower she said 'We are going to the hospital.' We rounded up the boys and starting packing Stacey's suitcase as well as the boys' suitcases. Then, we ran the kids over to the Moore's house. We drove to the hospital and Stacey was screaming at some of the slower cars that were in front of us, she was clearly in transition. After what seemed like forever, we made it to the hospital and we headed to the maternity wing of the hospital - time was 2:33 pm. As we were heading up to the third floor, Stacey wanted me to take a picture of her belly since we had not taken any pictures of late -- so there we were in the elevator taking a picture of her belly. We went to the main desk to check in and they asked Stacey what seemed to me like a million questions. I finally said something to them about her having major contractions and that she tends to have babies quickly and the receptionist finally said that she would get a nurse out to take Stacey back to a room. Stacey had at least two, if not three, contractions while being interviewed. Each time Stacey would say 'sorry' and the lady would respond "not a problem, just take your time." Finally, a nurse came and got Stacey and walked us back to her room -- a long walk in which Stacey had another two contractions. The nurse talked and asked questions and didn't seem to understand that we were in a hurry, and we shuffled slowly to the room. I thought that maybe the two hard contractions in about a minute's time would be a clue. Finally, she got Stacey into a room, laid her down, and got her comfortable. Again, just taking her time and eventually got around to checking the diameter of her cervix. After checking, there was clear panic in her demeanor but she tried to stay calm as she announced that Stacey was at a 7. She quickly ran out of the room and all of the sudden there were 5 or 6 people in the room setting things up. A rookie EMT and a nurse began to set-up an IV. The EMT stuck in the needle and missed her vein, so the nurse grabbed her other arm and stuck in the needle and hit a valve in the vein. She handed the contraption back to the EMT and he tried to stick in back in her right arm. Sounding very proud, he announced that he had got the vein and the IV was ready to start, but seconds later he said "I spoke too soon....but maybe we can still save it." I was about ready to explode with "Get someone in here who knows what they are doing!" Stacey said she could feel my anger and impatience! The nurse and the EMT then made a few adjustments and actually were able to save the IV and they got it running, but Stacey needed to get at least a liter of fluid in her before they could give her an epideral. It was a waiting game as Stacey suffered through more contractions and we all watched the fluid in the IV bag drain extremely slowly. Of course, by this time Lily was ready to come out. The midwife had arrived and checked Stacey and she was at a 9, so they called the anesthesiologist in. She arrived and the midwife said that the baby was on its way and that Stacey would not be able to get the epidural. The anesthesiologist said that she could give Stacey an interthecal(?) that would work just as good...but it didn't take well. Stacey begged for an epidural after experiencing several more contractions, and they considered doing it, but the midwife said something to the effect of "Stacey, you can do this -- many women throughout time have done it naturally." In my mind I was thinking "Yeah, but most of the time the men weren't there to see their wives go through that pain!" Stacey finally relented and she began pushing (approximately 3:15 pm). After a lot of yelling and screaming and pain, I was ready for Stacey to start pushing - ha ha. Stacey pushed 5 or 6 times and then the EMT came back into the room. He asked if he could watch the delivery of the baby. At this point, there had only been women in the room and Stacey's legs were high in the air. I tell Stacey wanted to say "What the hell?? Are you kidding me? Everyone else is watching." but it came out like "What the heck? Fine. Everyone else is here watching." The midwife decided to actually let the EMT deliver the baby and walked him through every step of the process. Stacey pushed for about an hour and several times declared "I can't do this any more" and I kept hoping that the baby would come out any second. We were not used to these 1 hours sessions of pushing the baby out, normally Stacey would push 5 or 6 times and the baby would come right out. Finally, we started to the see the head get closer to coming out, and with each push got closer and closer. It was so amazing when the head did finally pop out. Lily had her little hand up toward that back of her head and the cord was wrapped around her hand and neck -- with her hand keeping it from choking her, but it was amazing to me that her hand could actually be all the way behind her head in such a position. They were able to push the cord down her body as Stacey pushed Lily all the way out. The midwife took Lily and placed her on Stacey and finally Lily made a sound. At that moment all emotion flooded from Stacey and I as we amazed in the little body that lay before us. She was so beautiful! At 4:13 pm on July 13, Lily Elizabeth Griffin entered into this world. Stacey got to hold her for the next 45 minutes as she delivered the placenta and the midwife sewed up the wounds. A little after 5 pm, they nurse finally weighed and measured Lily at 7 lbs even and 19.5 inches long. Such an amazing experience and so different than the rest of the children since it was more of a natural birth. We are so excited for what experiences lay before us with her and the personality that she will add to the family. We are not so excited for all the sleepless nights STACEY is going to be having in the next little while - ha ha. Mama and baby are doing great and we spend a lot of time just sitting around holding our little one -- it is great!! I am sure there will be a lot of pictures on here in the days, months, and years to come...