kevin vanessa olive lorenzo: She's Here!

Kevin and I are extremely excited to FINALLY announce the arrival of Olive Elwin Goertzen! She was born on Wednesday, July 7th and weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 19" long. Here is the skinny on how it all went down:

FRIDAY
Olive was due on Friday, July 2nd. That day came and went without anything even remotely exciting occurring. And nothing Saturday either.

SUNDAY
We weren't too heartbroken at being late and still rooted for Sunday, July 4th so Olive could have fireworks (and not make Daddy miss a performance of his show!) Unfortunately, there still wasn't much going on that day. I walked on the treadmill at a steep incline for 40 minutes and had once juicy and painful contraction. But that was it. We went up to Park City later that afternoon and hiked up and down Main Street hoping to get the ball rolling! All that really did was make me tired and my belly muscles tense. Still no baby.

MONDAY
The following day, the doctor's office was closed in observance of the holiday. Still nothing.

TUESDAY
Kevin and I were more than antsy at this point so I got into the doctor's office to find out what the heck was going on. The doctor said I was dilated to a 3 and 100% effaced. He stripped my membranes AGAIN and was just as puzzled as we were regarding the tardiness of Miss Olive. He said technically he could not induce me until at least Friday the 9th but would try and get me on the list for Thursday--and couldn't even promise that. He joked that Olive definitely couldn't and shouldn't come "tomorrow" (Wednesday) since he had gotten tickets to see Kevin's show. If things were good for an induction on Thursday, we would get a call the night before.

WEDNESDAY
The following morning I awoke to a phone call from the hospital at 10:30 am "to confirm my induction for 11:45 am." Kevin and I were both surprised based on the previous day's conversation, but did not hesitate at the opportunity to be done. We took the world's quickest showers and headed over to the hospital.

Within about an hour I had pitocin flowing through my veins and the epidural administered. The nurse called my doctor (who was also extremely surprised to hear I was at the hospital being induced). They asked him if he wanted to send me home. Based on the contractions they reported seeing on the monitor, my doctor decided to go forward. He came right over and broke my water, probably about 1:00. And the waiting game began.

By 5:00, I had barely dilated to a 4 and was not feeling any contractions still. I had the Braxton Hicks ones that had been showing up on the monitor--but I pretty much don't count those. All the hospital personnel estimated I would have the baby 10:30 or 11. They said the average labor is 12 hours for first-time mothers. We debated whether Kevin should go do his show or not. My doctor and the other staff members all reassured us that they could slow the process down if they needed to and at the rate I was going it was still going to be a while. At 6:00 I had dilated to a 5 and had minimal contractions. So Kevin left to go do his show and we both felt pretty confident things would work out.

At 7:00, I got a text message from Kevin--just wanting to check out my progress. I was definitely feeling the contractions more and they were a couple of minutes apart. A few minutes later the nurse came in and told me I was dilated to an 8. I was starting to feel a little nervous since I my labor had accelerated so suddenly. The nurse said there could still be a couple hours of pushing but things were definitely ahead of schedule. I texted Kevin back and told him he would probably miss the birth. Was it going to be the end of the world? No. I told him just to come over as soon as the show was over and hoped he could concentrate alright with the show.

Kevin showed up at 7:45. His kind understudy was well-prepared and confident to go on. I think Kevin also realized there was no chance he would be able to keep his mind where it needed to be. I was so glad to see him and elated he would not miss it. As you may recall, the doctor is also at the show. Kevin gave him an update before leaving and told the doctor to not worry about leaving the show.

I started pushing at 8:45. The doctor showed up after the show at about 11:00 and I was still pushing. I didn't mention it earlier, but the epidural made me really drowsy. At this point, I am beyond exhausted. Poor little Olive could not get under my pelvic bone. Every time I took a break she would kind of slip back in. The doctor said he could use the forceps but he really didn't want to since the tearing is worse.

Frankly, I was tired of pushing and just wanted to be done. I gave the doctor permission to use the forceps. A couple pushes later, we got Olive's head under the pelvic bone and I was finally able to push her out. So that is three hours of pushing. And I did tear and it is not fun but I sure was glad to be done pushing. So little miss Olive was born at 11:45 pm!!!