The Lions Family Den: September 2011

Emery Grace Lions was born on August 30th 2011 at 12:16pm. She weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

The long awaited birth of our daughter finally occurred. Although I truly desired to go in to labor naturally (especially because I had to be induced with Xavier), I also had to be induced with this time around.

The Birth Story
On Sunday, August 28th, I was quite swollen in the feet and hands and decided to check my blood pressure at Safeway on the way back from church. It was a little on the high side so I called the advice doctor at the clinic I go to and he advised me to come in to get it checked by a nurse the next day as well as get some blood work done (checking for preclampsia...gestational high blood pressure). I had HBP with Xavier and thus had to be induced, but was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without spiking my blood pressure. SO, at the check up on Monday, my BP was even higher than the day before. They called the available doctor to come in and chat with me. The doctor said, it's high enough (my BP) and I'm far enough along...oh, wait, you're 4 days overdue, that we need to do an induction. She seemed pretty concerned so I asked, "like right now?" (I started to tear up because I was all alone). She said probably tomorrow depending on how baby is doing. So they a did a non-stress test to monitor baby and she was doing just fine and thus the induction was scheduled for the next day, August 30th at 6:30am.

That night we went out to celebrate the last day as a family of 3 at Beaches. When we got home we took one last picture in Emery's room before she arrived.

Ray's mom, Julia, got to our house early in the morning on Tuesday to be there for Xavier. We arrived at the hospital on time, and by 7:30 my petocin was started and my contractions came along with it. I had been 4cm dilated for the past week and was still that way when the doctor came in to break my water at 8:30. After the breaking of the water the contractions began to get a lot strong and longer. My parents and grandma (aka GG) arrived around 10:00, but only stayed for a short time so I could labor without a huge crowd. Thankfully Ray and my best friend Laura were there with me the whole time! I couldn't have asked for better support people. Around 11:00 I asked to be checked for dilation in order to determine if I would get an epidural or not. I was about 6/7cm dilated and was having very intense contractions so I opted for the epidural. The anesthesiologist was very quick and I had my epidural in and "working" by 11:45ish...time was all a blur, so this is just a guess. Usually the epidural takes about 10 to 15 minutes to fully take effect so I was still feeling my contractions (and my entire lower body) for a bit after the epidural was in...although my contractions were slightly lessened in intensity. I mentioned to the nurse about a distinct pain during my contraction and she asked if I felt any pressure. I felt some, but not much. She had me turn on my side and with my next contraction I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to push. She quickly had me role back over and checked my progression...sure enough I was fully dilated, effaced, and ready to push. The nurse left to go get the doctor and I went through 3 or 4 contractions with Ray by my side telling him I wanted to push, and almost not being able to control not pushing (such a different feeling than with Xavier because I had had my epidural for so long that I couldn't even feel the contractions)...I think Ray and Laura were a little nervous that they might be delivering the baby. I could definitely feel everything and was able to push little Miss Emery Grace out in 3ish contractions at 12:16. Praise the Lord for 2nd births being faster than the first (full 24 hours with Xavier and only 6ish with Emery.)

She is absolutely perfect (and everyone says she looks a lot like her big brother)...we're so incredibly blessed.

Fresh out of the oven meeting Mommy for the first time