She has arrived!

Olivia Kate Pedersen has arrived! On Tuesday July 29th at about 5am my water broke. I didn't realize it and since I was not having any contractions, I just went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling just fine with no more signs of a baby coming, so I went to the gym. It was about 10 min. into my workout that I started to become a bit more suspicious because the same sensation I had experienced at 5am happened again. Not wanting to be an overanxious first time mother-to-be I continued my workout for a few more minutes, as the feeling continued to come a few more times. I finally decided that it wouldn't be too presumptuous to think that my water had broken, so I left the gym and called Anthony. He suggested I go to the hospital, which is right across the street and see what they thought. The nurse tested for amniotic fluid and said it was a definite yes. The doctor came in to check. I had dilated a centimeter from the day before at my doctor's appointment. Dr. Tayler said we had about 24 hours to have the baby and instructed the nurse to go ahead and get me started on pytocin. This is about where I started to panic. I had not showered, I had nothing with me, my house was a mess (no clean laundry, dirty dishes, house in disarray) and they were going to keep me at the hospital until the baby came. After a little convincing, the doctor said I could go home for 1 hour to take a shower and pack a few things. I called Anthony, who came right home. I called mom to let her know the status. She was still at my sister Kelley's house, who had a baby 9 days before. Mom was not scheduled to fly to Utah until August 8th, a day before my due date, but within an hour, she had showered, packed her bags, changed her flight, and was headed for the airport. She was scheduled to arrive in SLC at 8:45pm, with hopes that the baby could wait until then to come. Anthony's mom came over and we all dashed around, showering, packing, cleaning, etc. As I was giving Anthony a list of things he needed to do to get the house ready for our new baby, he pointed out that perhaps it was a bit too late to start nesting. Very valid point, but I just couldn't stand the thought of coming home to a dirty house! We headed back to the hospital at about 12:45pm, and by about 1:30pm they had me hooked up to an IV with pytocin. For about the first 5 hours or so, the contractions were bearable. I walked the one hall of the hospital, finished up graduation stuff, blogged, and shopped for a car seat online. My sister Heather was planning on stopping at Babies R Us on the way to the hospital to buy one, since that was on my list of things to buy this week before the baby came. At about 7pm, I got an epidural, which was the most eventful moment of the whole day aside from the actual birth. I was having intense contractions by the time the anesthesiologist came. The thought and feeling of something going down beside my spine along with the crazy pain from my contractions was too much for my body at once. I promptly felt like I was going to pass out. My blood pressure dropped to 60/25, my heart rate was 41, and the baby started to freak out. Rode just kept telling me to open my eyes and look at him. Because the baby was in distress they had to stop doing the epidural and give me oxygen and epinephrine. We finally made it through the whole ordeal and within about 15 minutes I was feeling great. Friends and family started to arrive: Anthony's mom (who watched the whole epidural episode from the couch across the room), Anthony's sister Holly, one of my best friends Anita, Mama Winterton, and finally Heather, Denver and my mom. I was ready to start pushing by 9:30pm, but the nurse asked if we wanted to just wait until my mom got there at 10pm. Mom walked in at 10:05pm and by 10:15pm I was pushing. We had a crowd in the room who watched quietly from one side of the room and welcomed Olivia into the world with pictures and cheering after about 1 hour and 15 minutes of pushing. It was such a calm, happy experience. The doctor was great, everyone was very encouraging, and we ended up with a beautiful baby at the end of it all! Olivia weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has a delightful personality. Already we are learning about her sweet, calm disposition. Everything she does makes us smile. We love her more and more everyday!

Olivia with her proud Dad...

and her tired Mom