Mayleigh Faith Griffith

This is the Griffith Family as a family of 4!  This is also the day that our family of 4 with Dad, Mom, and two brothers turned into a family of 5 with baby sister.  This was our last picture as a family of 4!

Mayleigh Faith Griffith made her appearance into this world on November 8, 2010 at 3:42pm.  She weighed in at 8lbs. 4 oz, and was 20 1/2 inches long.  By far, her delivery was the easiest of the 3. We made the decision to continue seeing my doctor in Dallas.  After 2 deliveries with the boys and her compassion and willingness to adapt to our birth plan, we just couldn't leave Dr. Haddock.  And, I must say, it was a good decision.  We made our way to Dallas on Sunday afternoon and went to the 3-Day to cheer on some Z-Bra teammates who also walked last year.  We had an awesome dinner at Uncle Julio's with NuNu and Aunt Wandi, and stayed in a hotel that night.  On Monday morning, we arrived around 7:45 and were in our room and hooked up to all the necessary machines and medicines by 8:00am.  The boys stayed back at the hotel with NuNu and Aunt Wandi and prepared themselves for a fun-filled day at the Dallas Zoo.  Now, it was time to play the waiting game!  Dan and I had some relaxing, almost rejuvenating time together in the delivery room by ourselves (minus the every 5 minute interruptions from the nurses and staff).  We had taken some worship music and some relaxing tunes that a friend of mine had put together for us (Thanks Traci), and we just listened and had adult conversation over the next few hours.  Dr. Haddock came in around 10:30 am and went ahead and broke my water.  Which I will go ahead and admit now that is one of the grossest parts of not going into labor yourself is having your water broken.  Mayleigh kept up a good heart rate through the entire process thus far.  They did an exam at this point and I was dialated to a  3.  Contractions started to increase so it wasn't long after my water broke that I was requesting the epidural.  I wanted to see just how long I could go with out.  It was a few minutes before the epidural arrived because they were preparing a C-Section.  I once again had no complications with the implantation of the epidural, and this time Dan watched a little more than he had the previous times.  I could tell that this epidural wasn't as strong has the ones I had previously had, and the anesthesiologist had mentioned that he hadn't put in quite as much medicine as the guy who did my previous two, but that he would be back to turn it up later.  So, this all happened at around 11:30am.  We got a little more rest time, and I think I might have actually fallen asleep a couple of times.  Dan went to grab himself some lunch at around 1 pm.  Around 2:30pm a resident came in (Baylor is a teaching hospital so you could easily be checked my multiple people throughout the day) and she checked and stated I was at a 10 and just about ready to start pushing.  Both Dan and I were in a little state of shock.  I mean it was only 2:30pm and we were being told we were ready to push.  They called Dr. Haddock down from her office.  She passed Dan in the hallway and was worried he was about to miss the birth of his baby girl.  She did a double-check and said "Let's wait another 30-45 minutes because we are really only at a 9, maybe a 10 with contractions, but let's give it a little more time".  Which, for us, still another 30-45 was nothing to have to wait.  We were used to waiting until 8pm for the go ahead.  So, we waited, the nurse did another check, and called Dr. Haddock down immediately.  We were READY!  Mayleigh's heart rate still had done beautiful during contractions after the epidural, so at this point there weren't any complications for a v-bac delivery.  We began the pushing process, and OH NO, apparently her heart rate began to drop rapidly once we actually pushed.  So, we heard Dr. Haddock's code words of "We're going to have a baby", which Dan says is her way of telling the nurses "let's get this baby out quickly".  But, then we heard her call a resident to "bring in the forceps".  At this point, she didn't really tell us much except that we were going to have a baby and we weren't going to do it c-section.  After about 3 pushes with forceps, Mayleigh entered the world at 3:42pm.  It was yet another great delivery experience!  She was placed on my chest while Dan was able to cut the cord, and then she was whisked away for examination.  They had to call in a NICU doctor to check her out because that is just procedure for all forcep babies.  The great thing is, he was only in the room for about a total of 2 minutes and informed everyone that she was fine!  Oh, and by the way, the epidural medicine never got turned up.  I still couldn't feel anything during delivery, but recovery was so much faster from the epidural.  It took them about 20-30 minutes to get her cleaned up and fully examined, then she had her first nursing session and it was time to bring in the big brothers. 

Josh and Nathan came in and they were able to watch the nurse do some of the last exams on Mayleigh.  Josh wasn't sure what to think, but he was sure he didn't want to hold her.  Nathan was ready to hold her and love on her.  We had gotten the boys a couple of "congratulations" gifts that they were able to open, and also Daddy had written each of us a card that we took time to read.  We had a time of devotion with the boys and prayer time as well.  It was such a sweet time as our first moments as "The Griffith Five". 

After the boys came in and we had some time as a family, it was time for NuNu and Aunt Wandi to come meet Mayleigh.  They didn't get to stay in there long because they were ready to transport me to our room upstairs.  Everything happened so much faster than our other deliveries, but it was great!  I was already starting to get feeling back in my legs with an hour after delivery.  Once I got up to use the restroom, I could do it all on my own due to the lower dosage of epidural medicine.  Now it was time to just enjoy our newborn baby girl, and also hope to get some rest!  I have to say, having a newborn in the room wasn't the reason we didn't get any rest.  It was once again, the much needed interruptions from nurses and staff.  Baylor is such an awesome place to have a baby!  They took such good care of us and Mayleigh!