Black Tie Weekend

Well, our big night out was a success! ASL held it's semi-annual PCA auction fundraiser last weekend and Chris and I decided to attend, despite having a 12 week old at home. To ease my mind we had our sitter bring a friend for a few hours to get through bath and bedtime and everything went well. And you'll be impressed to hear that Chris and I didn't get home until after 1am! REALLY late for people who are typically in bed by 9! ha!

I also chaperoned my first school trip last week, to the Royal Academy of Art. Although it was a beautiful building and had a very good British Sculpture exhibit, I think the subject matter of many of the pieces of art was a little old for the kids, who were regularly overheard saying "hey, there's another weenie statue!" But I did enjoy spending the time with Josephine and her classmates and teachers.

This week we are preparing to have Josephine home from school for spring break and then working on plans for her birthday celebration. Should be a lot of fun, more details to follow. Chris Jr. is separating much better at school and his key teacher says he spent most of this week showing off his big muscles and even demonstrated how strong he is by hitting one of his classmates in the head with an empty milk bottle! Oops! Thankfully the kid hit him back with a frying pan so I didn't feel too bad! lol Little Madeline is still feeling better, although she's not sleeping as well as she has. She spends a lot of time in her car seat being dragged from one place to another, but she seems content and is really filling the role of third child well.

All in all it's been a fun couple of weeks and we're looking forward to a week off from school to relax and not rush in the mornings.

I can't stop eating peanut butter!

Well, being off dairy for the little girl's reflux has pushed me in a whole new direction of eating. I'm testing the limits of what tastes good with peanut butter. So far my favorite is my bagel in the morning and apples for a snack. Without cheese I just feel so hungry all the time! The other day Chris Jr. dipped is carrot in peanut butter, but I have to say it wasn't my favorite. haha

Chris and I are getting ready for our first big night out. ASL has is having it's black tie fundraiser this Saturday and we've decided to go. I'm actually wearing a dress that I had from before the baby and it fits!

Chris Jr. is doing very well in preschool and he even has a little girl friend named Sophia. He is very attached to her and his teacher says he finds her everyday and greets her with a hug and a kiss. Adorable!

Pictures of the week:

Maddie's first English tea, in St. John's Wood with Cynthia and Ron

We are playing a lot more. I'm finding all the kids are better behaved if I just stop and take a few minutes to sit down and play with them. Here are the kids with the baby.

Josephine drew it and then we built it. This was a lot of fun.

Last weekend we happened upon a really cool event. We went up to Alexander's Palace to show the kids a skate park and playground and when we got there we realized there was also an international custom bike and trike show. Chris Sr. was in heaven! It was a lot of fun, complete with a trick motorcycle demonstration. I'm sure that Maddie was by FAR the youngest person there! haha

First Night Out

Maddie's first tube ride

Well, I'm just back from our first night out without the kids. Chris' parents Cynthia and Ron are here visiting and they suggested it, so we booked a hotel room and took off for the entire night! I was really nervous. Despite having three children I still seem to worry a lot about little Madeline. I would have guessed that after having two other children the anxiety would have subsided. And I'm sure it has a bit; I doubt we would have left Josephine for a night this early in her life. But despite our concerns we decided that a quiet, full night of sleep was worth it!

In the words of my mother-in-law Cynthia "you guys take this all a little too seriously." AMEN sister! She is SO right. Of course, everything went well in our absence. So as it turns out the kids CAN survive for short periods of time on TV and junk food! Ha! No, just kidding, everyone was great and the kids slept well and hardly noticed that we were gone.

Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed our night at Le Meridian Piccadilly, which was actually quite nice, and I came home refreshed and ready to tackle another day of babies, toddlers, exercise, shots for the littlest one, and dinner. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Josephine is off from school along with Chris Sr. so we're planning a fun morning out with Grammy and Grampa, perhaps to the National Gallery. Then we are scheduled for high tea at Grosvenor House. Should be a fun day.

"Illegal" Picture of Cyn inside Westminster Abbey

Ahh... Livin' the Dream.

Vacation Pictures:

Pottery on the wheel at Blue China in Totnes, Devon

On Knowle Farm, Devon

Chris eating his sundae at the Pizza Express in Plymouth

Chinese New Year Dinner with Cecilia and her kids, Isabella, Alex and Chloe

Well, here we are people. Smack dab in the middle of life. You'd think there would be a lot to report, and in the larger scheme of things we do have quite a bit going on. Three kids, including one that is just eight weeks old. A two and a half year old who's just starting pre-school and our oldest in Kindergarten. Chris Sr. is very busy at work and I'm... well, let's just say that at this point I AM.

But as I break down the bigger picture into smaller bite size pieces, these days I find myself consistently asking, "Really? Is this what I am meant to be doing right now?" And unfortunately I am at a loss. I mean these are the activities that make up my days:

- wake up, usually between 4 and 5 am

- don't shower

- change diapers

- change sheets

- struggle to dress the entire family

- rush through every meal, eating most standing up

- make lunches

- try to find clothes that fit

- try to exercise

- run errands

- try not to yell at the kids too much, especially Chris Jr.

- don't read anything

- sing endless Playhouse Disney songs in my head

- think of something even slightly healthy to feed the family for dinner

- try to sleep around a waking baby

- rock the baby

- watch TV with the kids

- rock the baby

- watch TV with the husband

- rock the baby

- nurse the baby every 3-4 hours all day long

- wake up, do it all over again...

So I've come to two conclusions. First, I am incredibly lucky to be living this life filled with love and opportunity, now I just have to figure out how to appreciate it more and take advantage of all that I have. And two, I'm going to try to rededicate my self to the blog, but in a slightly different, and somewhat more manageable way. I'm going to try and write shorter weekly entries that reflect on our struggles and achievements as a young family and I'm going to include weekly pictures. Less pressure to be perfect, more pressure to just document what we're doing, seeing, feeling, loving, laughing at, and fighting about. Ok, so now I just have to do it... Ready, Set, Go.

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! :)

MORE PICS:

Super Heros, Dragons, and Me...

Yes, people, it's Halloween at the Olmstead's. And for those of you who know us best, it won't come as a surprise that each member of our family excels at Halloween for different reasons. I am partial not to dressing up, but rather to scaring small children, as was the tradition for many years with my family in Atlanta. This year didn't offer such an opportunity, but fear not, I scare my own children daily, so all is not lost!

My Husband on the other hand seems to excel at costumes of all sorts, but particularly in the home constructed variety and in great ideas for all costumes purchased. Case and point... this year's Halloween here in London. For the last three weeks Chris and Josephine have worked every weekend to complete one of the most beautiful homemade dragon costumes I've ever seen. Really it was a full family project consisting of card board and paper mache and lots of paint. Josephine wore the complete outfit twice, once at school for a huge Halloween parade the Lower School has every year. It was by far the best homemade costume there!

Then came Halloween night here in St. John's Wood. I have to say, the expats and Brits around here don't disappoint. Though Halloween isn't huge in the UK you wouldn't have known it walking around the neighborhood. There were hundreds of kids and families in every direction! Houses were all running out of candy, and people were dying for Chris and Chris Jr.'s matching Captain America costumes. We were stopped no less than five times for them to pose for pictures with complete strangers. Not sure what would possess someone to want a picture of my husband in tight blue spandex, but hey, more power to them!

All and all, the fall has been truly spectacular. Between the weather, which has been beautiful, and all the fun London sites we've been enjoying we couldn't have asked for more. Friends, please stay in touch and come visit soon. Baby is just around the corner! Six weeks and counting! Thank GOD! :)