Olivia's Birth Story and the First Two Weeks

The last weekly pregnancy picture

Saturday, August 8

After my last entry, Jon and I decided to watch one last movie together, as parents of three kids.  I took my contacts out, put pajamas on, and got all comfortable on the couch.  We were about halfway through the movie at 10pm when the phone rang.  My first response was, "You have got to be kidding me."  Sure enough, it was Surrey Memorial Hospital calling me to tell me to come in right away to be induced.  I quickly ran upstairs to shower and re-dress while Jon started loading our overnight bags and the kids and their things into the car.  We dropped the kids off at my sister Melissa's house (she is only a couple minutes' drive away) and we drove to my parents to pick up my Mom.

The whole time we were driving I was filled with dread.  I knew (or so I thought!) exactly what was going to be happening to my body over the next day and a half and was not looking forward to it.  I was pretty grumpy.

We arrived at Surrey Memorial Hospital around 10:40pm.  The nice thing about arriving in the middle of the night was that we got an excellent parking spot in the underground parking :).  I didn't have to go through triage because I was a direct admittance due to my polyhydraminous.  We were eventually directed to room 230, and we got all ready to meet the Surrey Prenatal Clinic (SPNC)'s doctor on rotation that evening.

10:48pm

Dr. Jackson met with us and checked to see what progress I had made.  At that point, I was 2cm dilated and my cervix was about 2cm long.  The nurses hooked me up for fetal monitoring to ensure that Miss Baby Struik could handle the stress of an induction.  I then had two options given to me.  One, I could be induced with Oxytocin.  It would limit my mobility because I would have to be hooked up to a drip, but it would work quicker, but could make the induction more painful.  The second option was to be induced with Cervadil.  I would still have my mobility, and because it would likely take longer to be effective I could try to get a good night's sleep in.  I chose Cervadil.  I was so tired already due to the long evening in the hospital the night before, and I was dreading a painful labour that I took the 'safe' route.  The Cervadil was inserted at 11:25pm and my Mom went back home to try to get a good night's sleep as well.  Nearly immediately after the Cervadil was inserted I started having small contractions.  They came and went that whole night, sometimes regularly every five minutes, sometimes only every half an hour or so.  I definitely did not get much sleep that evening.

Olivia's hospital bassinet, all ready for her!

Sunday, August 9

My mom returned to the hospital just before 7am.  I bounced on the birthing ball for a bit and then we started pacing the hallways of the birthing unit.

At 10:15am, my nurse came in to perform more fetal monitoring.  At that point my contractions were beginning to become more frequent, and I rated them a four or five on a pain level scale of one to ten.  

At 11:15am, the doctor checked me and I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced.  They broke my water, and then were shocked how little fluid I had.  I was hardly polyhydranous!  I knew that my labour was going to intensify now, so I re-stressed to my nurse the importance of me having an epidural this time.  

At 11:27am, an IV was put in place, and we decided to wait 30 minutes before calling for the anesthesiologist to do the epidural.  Having an epidural too early could slow my contractions down, but waiting too long could mean that the anesthesiologist is busy with another patient/surgery.

At 11:45am, the nurse decided to call for the epidural.  Thank goodness, because when the anesthesiologist came in at 12:10pm, she said that she was just about to start a two hour surgery!

1:54pm

By 2pm my contractions had slowed down, so they started me on Oxytocin.  This only lasted for twenty minutes though because Miss Baby Struik's heart rate began fluctuating, dropping to as low as 99 bpm or going as high as 130 bpm, which they figured was either the result of the stress of being induced or she had the umbilical cord around her neck.  The head RN was called in and they had me switch from laying on my back to laying on my left side to laying on my right side (which, by the way, is really hard to do on your own when you can't really move your legs due to the epidural!).    

At 2:35pm I complained that I was really starting to feel my contractions again - the intensity that they were prior to receiving the epidural.  The contractions, however, were not very frequent (at most every three to four minutes).  Dr Wang checked me and I was 9.5cm dilated.  No wonder I was feeling the contractions!  My cervix was still thin, but Miss Baby Struik was very low.  

At 3:05pm I was fully dilated, and was ready to begin pushing.  This is where things started to get 'interesting'.  My contractions still were not very frequent, so at 3:18pm the Oxytocin was turned back on in an attempt to increase my contractions.  With each contraction, I pushed...but I, myself, never felt any progress being made.  With my other two pregnancies I had no problem pushing out the baby (Nathan, my brute, was out in 16 minutes).  Dr. Wang and the nursing staff started to get very worried that I was not going to be able to get Miss Baby Struik out, and they were keeping a very careful watch of her heartrate which still wasn't very stable.  The looming elephant in the room was that I was going to have to get sent for a cesarean...although no one actually spoke those words.  At around 4pm they called for the other doctor on rotation that afternoon, Dr. Huckell (she was actually my prenatal doctor with Matthew and Kayla's pregnancy because she deals with the more high-risk cases).  Dr. Huckell came into the room with an air of confidence, came to me, and as soon as I had my next contraction she stuck both hands in me and pulled me apart to stretch me wider.  Ouch.  During my next contraction at 4:09pm, she did the same thing - and with the help of another nurse's set of strong hands Miss Baby Struik was pulled out.

Olivia Margaret Struik was 21.75" long and weighed 9lb 8oz.

Immediately following the birth I started to hemorrhage, but they got it to stop (and after getting bloodwork done the next day it was decided that I did not need a blood transfusion).  It took five needles of local anesthetic and countless stitches for them to repair the third-degree tears, but they managed to fix me up.  

When I was finally sewn up, the nurses passed Olivia to me, and I cried.  It was strange for me to cry because I am not a crier (at all!), but I think the stress of the labour/delivery and the nervousness I had throughout the entire pregnancy just got to me when I realized that Olivia was safely in my arms.  It was like it was a huge relief to finally hold my baby girl.

Olivia was covered in vernex.  Her hair was matted with it, and it just coated her entire body.  Even after the nurses wiped her down she was a sticky mess.

At 7pm, my Dad came with Matthew, Kayla, and Nathan.  It was cute hearing their little voices come down the hall.  Matthew's first comment to me was, "Mom!  Your tummy is getting smaller!".

First photo as a family of six!

9:34pm - Olivia's first bath!

Monday, August 10

We were able to get discharged from the hospital by 1pm, and spent the rest of the day at my Mom's.  Olivia weighs 8lb 10oz now.

Since being home things have gone pretty well.  The timing of Olivia's birth is absolutely perfect, as Jon had just finished teaching summer school on Friday, and has the rest of the summer off (if he wants - there's often work at BLG if he wants it).  We have almost a week at home now to adjust to being a family of six and I have time to heal before we leave for our week-long vacation in Penticton.  My sole focus at this point is to make breastfeeding work (my others were all bottle-fed with pumped breastmilk), so if Olivia cries, I feed her.  It will take some work to get her onto a schedule eventually because she'll be used to being catered too, but it's important for me to make this work so I'm doing everything in my power to make sure she learns how to latch and that I have a good supply.

Thursday, August 13
I took Olivia to see my OB-GYN, Dr. Smith, just as a routine newborn check-up.  Everything looked good, and she weighs 8lb 10.5oz.  Dr. Smith figures that she is gaining weight.

Friday, August 14
I took Olivia to the public health unit to be weighed again, just to double-check that she is still gaining weight (because if she's gaining, then I know breastfeeding is working well).  She weighed 8lb 11.8oz.  YAY!

Saturday, August 15
My entire family left early in the morning for Penticton.  Olivia was a great traveler!  We stopped at Manning Park so she could feed, but other than that, she slept the whole way.

Monday, August 17
Breastfeeding continued.  She was feeding every two hours or so, and would take about an hour to feed.  Saturday night and Sunday night were rough - it seemed that Olivia was still hungry after I had fed her in the evening, but I had no milk left.  She cried and cried and cried until she fell asleep.  My dad and I drove out to the health unit in Penticton to have her weighed - she only weighed 8lb 12oz, a gain of only a half ounce over three days.  That sealed the deal for me; we immediately headed to Superstore where I bought some formula and bottles.  I had always said that if I couldn't get breastfeeding to work then I would do formula - I wasn't going to pump this time around (it's too time consuming with other kids to take care of).

From that day on, I started alternating between breastfeeding her with a bottle of formula to top up, and then solely formula feeding for the next feed to start weaning her from me (or me from her!).  The whole process went smoothly.  She took to the bottle immediatey, and feeds only took fifteen minutes.  All of a sudden I had a lot more time on my hands!

Olivia's first bottle

Wednesday, August 19
This was the first day that I didn't take any painkillers, and the swelling/water retention in my feet/legs went away almost overnight.  When I first noticed, I felt so skinny since I could actually see my ankles!

A look back over the last two weeks...
I can't believe that our sweet little Olivia is two weeks old already.  Oh, how time flies!  I went to the public health unit again today to weigh her and she weighs 9lb 8.5oz - a weight gain of 3/4lb over one week, and back up to her birth weight!

Olivia is a great baby (but which baby isn't?!?!).  So long as her belly is full and her diaper is clean, she is content.  She has hiccups daily and makes the cutest grunting sounds when she is trying to poo.  Her cry used to be super cute - it was like a muted baby cry - but now it sounds like the typical newborn.  She has long, skinny, arms and legs, and has big hands and feet.  She drinks 3-4oz of formula every 2-3 hours, and is a spitter (so gross!).

Everyone seems to ask us if we are done having kids...especially now that we have two boys and two girls.  So for those wondering, the answer is "I don't know."  If you were to ask Jon, he would say "Yes", but I'm not quite convinced.  I'm hoping that over the next year(s) we are given some sort of sign because I don't know what to do.  Maybe as Olivia gets older and becomes more demanding the answer will become more obvious.  For now, we are just enjoying Olivia and treating her like she's the last Baby Struik for our family.