Matthew & Kayla's Birth Story

Thursday, March 17

2:00pm

Checked to see how dilated I was...only 1 cm and 50% effaced. First dose of induction gel.

10:00pm

Given a sleeping pill.

Friday, March 18

3:00am

Still only 1 cm dilated. Given morphine with gravol to help ease the discomfort of the mild contractions so that I could sleep.

9:05am

Checked to see how dilated I was.

10:30am

Checked to see how dilated I was...2-3 cm. Dr. ruptured membranes.

12:45pm

Monitor was attached to Matthew's head to monitor him internally.

12:50pm

IV with Oxytocin was started.

5:00pm

Dr. broke my water for Matthew. Weirdest feeling ever! The water was so warm it reminded me of sitting in a hot tub :)

6:00pm

Given nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to help ease discomfort of contractions. It did nothing. If anything, it was annoying. It's hard to focus on only breathing through your mouth.

6:20pm

Given morphine to help ease discomfort of contractions.

7:30pm

Checked to see how dilated I was: 5cm. Received an epidural. Pure bliss!

8:00pm

Catheter was put in.

9:10pm

I mentioned to the nurse that I had to go to the bathroom, and so I wanted to know what she wanted me to do because I was hooked up to an IV and a few monitors. The nurse was quite shocked, and so she checked to see how dilated I was: 9cm. Apparently the pressure I was feeling was the baby, and not a bowel movement :). The medical staff went into panic mode as they weren't expecting me to have progressed this quickly. Our nurse had just mentioned that she figured the babies would be born at 3am.

9:38pm

Dr. Checked to see how dilated I was: 10cm.

9:54pm

Moved to the operating room. It was still chaos at this point as they weren't quite prepared for me. I kept wanting to push, but they wouldn't let me because they weren't ready yet.

10:47pm

Matthew John Struik is born.

11:01pm

Kayla Rose Struik is born. She didn't cry for what seemed like forever, and Jon says she was completely blue when she was delivered. Thank goodness I didn't see that! I had to deliver both of their placentas still, so I was concentrating on doing that and listening for her cry. I felt like I was a part of a tv show or movie, where everyone is working quickly to try to get the newborn to cry.