Back to Baby Bliss

Well, as things turned out, Christmas was a little extra 'Merry' this year. As most of you have already read, we had our beautiful little girl, Madeline America Olmstead, on December 13th at 8:10pm and we were home together soon after. She is adorable, eats well, sleeps well, cries well, all the things babies do best! Right? Well, not so fast Olmsteads... don't get too comfortable just yet. As it turned out there was a bit of a curve ball coming our direction.

About six days after Madeline's birth I came down with some new symptoms. I began having very severe abdominal pains that didn't go away and then the fever began. By the time I arrived at St. Mary's A & E (Accident and Emergency for you Americans) I was quite sick. Sadly I couldn't take Madeline with me to the hospital because there were so many cases of swine flu around so she had to stay home with my father and Chris and the kids, and my Mom went to the hospital with me. It was a VERY long first night, but eventually I was admitted and began what turned out to be a much longer stay than I initially anticipated.

After 48 hours of multiple IV antibiotics I was still spiking fevers of over 102 and beginning to become more and more worried. This is when the blood tests finally revealed that I had a somewhat rare but VERY serious bacterial infection caused by Group A Strep. Once they narrowed the cause of the infection and added penicillin to my drug 'cocktail' things began to improve much faster. After five nights in the hospital I was finally allowed to come home on December 24th.

And so here I am again, back to baby bliss. Although I am still on IV antibiotics, with a nurse visting me each day, there is no more pumping and sending milk home, and no more worrying about the chaos and mayhem running amuck at my house. Now I'm right back in the center of it where I belong. I will say that at the beginning of my illness I was feeling really down and sorry for myself. Very sad about begin separated from the kids, especially the baby during such special early bonding time. But after the head of Labor and Delivery came to see me and explained how serious the infection was I started to think... hmmm, maybe I should stop feeling sorry for myself and start being thankful that I'm alive and relatively well. And that is where I still am. Thankful and alive and well! :)

And it might sound rather cliche, particularly coming from me, but I really think this experience has taught me something more valuable than I could have ever imagined. I have never felt so lucky and blessed to have all that I do... my wonderful family and parents who loved me enough to help take care of all the kids while I was away. A husband who is simply super dad in every way, in-laws who bought last minute tickets to come stay so that I could have a bit more time to recover. Friends here who helped with play dates for Josephine. And best of all, I was able to come home on Christmas Eve and spend the holiday with the kids. Back to baby bliss, and let's face it, toddler hell! But in all honesty, there is truly no other place in the world I would rather be, and this experience is helping me see that much more clearly.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year XOXO,

Mere

OK, Here's the Scoop!

December 13th, 2010

What a first day! Just when I thought she was going to make us wait past her due date of December 16th, little Madeline America Olmstead made quite a speedy appearance. Here's the story...

Monday evening some contractions began around 5:30pm. I had been having similar contractions for weeks so I didn't really think much of these. But by the time Chris got home from work at 6:15 I had a feeling we might be in business. We left the kids with my mom, who thankfully had arrived the day before, and headed to St. Mary's Hospital. Our taxi picked us up at the flat at 7pm exactly.

From there we had a 10-12 minute drive to the hospital. Once we arrived they got us into a room rather quickly and things just kept moving along. Of course there were two important priorities for ME, the epidural, which I was convinced I couldn't live without, and getting prophylactic antibiotics to treat a positive Strep B test. As the nurse and midwife worked on both of these my water broke. When I arrived I was checked around 7:30 and was 3-4 centimeters dilated. After my water broke they hung the antibiotic and checked me again and at 8pm I was 10 centimeters!! Unbelievable!

The midwife looked at me and said "we're not going to have time for the epidural." I was so scared. Having had it with Josephine and Chris I really wasn't sure I could do it! Then she got this really calming way about her and said "Meredith, this baby is going to be out in less than 2 minutes." And I said "ok." And she was right, Madeline America Olmstead was born at 8:10pm on December 13th 2010. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz, and we haven't gotten her length measured just yet.

The entire delivery was by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life. To think that I walked into the hospital and less than an hour later was holding my new little girl in my arms was mind-blowing. I was so happy and I still haven't stopped smiling. (Well, maybe not so smiley as I spent my first sleepless night at home.) The other fun tidbit to mention, we left the house at 7pm on Monday and we were home with Maddie by noon on Tuesday, the very next day! We were out of the house for about 15 hours! SO funny! The NHS doesn't mess around with long hospital stays. I guess with it being our 3rd baby they figured we were better off at home. Obviously they've never met Chris Jr. who has been pawing at his new little sister since we walked in the door! lol

And here is Josephine, who is just the most loving and adorable big sister. She came to see me in the hospital and wasn't allowed on the ward due to her recent case of Chicken Pox. But she insisted on coming anyway and got all dressed up to meet her new sister. She was only able to look at her through the glass doorway and the expression on her face the first time she saw Madeline will be with me forever. It was a five-year-old look of total unconditional love and amazement. Truly, these are the moments that make my life worth living. To see my oldest daughter meet her little sister with so much compassion and joy... it was incredible.

That said, we are now officially out numbered! God, please help us! :)

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