My Cup Runneth Over...

Alas, I am finally sitting down to collect a few thoughts about these past two weeks and share them with you. Thank God for Kurt or none of you would ever know what's going on or what our beautiful little daughter looks like! Here's a fun photo for you. Madelyn has more and more alert times during the day and loves to take in her surroundings. Here is one of her first meetings with her zebra. She really tracks his movements! I think she likes his black and white stripes, and he does have a rather winning smile.
So I'm a mom. Seeing that sentence actually in writing is just crazy! What a whirlwind... sometimes I just look at my precious little girl and I can't believe that she's mine. Everything they say about becoming a parent is absolutely true. There is no love like the love you have for your child... even when you've only known them 13 days. I am totally exhausted and overwhelmed and anxious about these next few weeks, but I am completely smitten with Maddie. When she wakes me up at 3:00 to eat and it's been a couple hours since I've seen her, I find that I miss her. Every little expression and gurgle and wrinkle seems somehow sacred to me, and maybe it is given the miracle of creation and birth and life. I am just so overwhelmed with how thankful I am for her... and for my amazing husband. Kurt redefines the "involved father." He is so wonderful with Maddie and so patient and encouraging with me and my already crazy hormones. I am so blessed to have him and to be riding this crazy ride with him.

I am also so blessed to have each one of you in my life. I fear that it will take me far too long to get individual thank you notes to each of you, but I want to make sure that each of you knows how grateful I am for all of your cards, flowers, gifts, meals, phone calls, visits, etc. Everyone has been so thoughtful and kind and generous, and it has been so fun for Kurt and me to introduce you all to Madelyn.

So there's so much more to say, and I'll try to keep up on postings and photos. Thanks for checking in :)

Much love,
Kim

I get to work tomorrow...

Hey all~

This post probably won't make me as popular with those of you wanting to see more of Madelyn. For that, I'll add a picture at the end.

I'm just writing to share how excited, nervous, and thankful I am to be going in to adidas tomorrow for my first day on the job. It sounds like it's going to be low key, but I don't want to lose any focus starting up. I think I'm going to be hitting the ground running and working with the team very quickly. This is such a great opportunity and I definitely plan on over-delivering.

Okay, enough of the boring stuff.

Here's a little pic of Maddie rockin' her first pair of adidas kicks. Yeah, so they're a little big, but the camera angle is exaggerating things a bit.

Here, it looks like all of our practice swaddling the stuffed animals paid off. With Maddie finally here, she's as snug as a bug and sleeping here and there.
The sweetest thing in life is family. Here are 4 generations, 3 of which are amazing moms that are shining examples of unfaltering love. How sweet it is!

I'm sorry it's taking so long for me to get the video up. My instincts tell me it has something to do with the lack of sleep. It's coming soon... I promise!

Talk again soon.

~Kurt

"When am I going home?" --Madelyn Grace

Well, my daughter is the most beautiful girl on the planet! I can't believe how much I love her. I can't take my eyes off of her when we're in the same room and when we're apart, I kick myself for not having a wallet full of photos yet... given the number of pictures I've taken, however, I could carry 7 of them.

So the nights are still pretty tough to get used to. Madelyn loves the night life -- she likes to boogie. All night long she squirms and coos, waiting for attention from her scruffy, sleep deprived, ragged-looking father or her beautiful, strong, able-to-tackle-anything mother. The days are great: visitors stop by and see how cute she is in person, Kim and I dote on her, the nurses do their thing. Funny how, through all of this, Maddie is generally fast asleep but when the rest of us want to catch up on some z's, she's all about the party time and social hour. I love her so much.

As for going home, it sounds like we'll be able to leave (some say able to, others say forced to... hee hee) tomorrow at around 11am or 12noon. It's been great to have the support of the nurses and other hospital staff, but we've had our amazing family offer some pretty great support as well.

Once we get home, I'll throw together some video that I took during our life-changing adventure (G-rated, of course). Thanks for your continued prayers and thoughts.

Life is beautiful... so is Maddie!

~Kurt

IT'S A GIRL!!!

(Baby-O's 1st Picture)

As of 8:01pm on 9.10.7, Madelyn Grace Olmsted is breathing her own air. She was 7lbs. 12oz. and 21in. long with more hair than I had when I was 3years old (slight exaggeration). She is absolutely beautiful and is passing all of her tests with flying colors... 100% healthy!


the gist of labor...
Kim started having pretty heavy/painful contractions on Sunday around 1pm. We continued to do a lot of walking to keep the contractions coming, and they stayed a very consistent 4-8 minutes apart for a couple hours. By 10:30pm we decided to head in to the hospital but we were given "the walk of shame". They sent us home to keep working on the contractions since we were in the very early stages of labor.

At about 2:30am, Kim's contractions were reaching near intolerance due to the pain. We raced back to the hospital and were admitted nearly straight away. The grandparents got their calls at around 3:30am and were at the hospital by 5 or 5:30 ready to welcome Baby-O into the world.

peaceful babies sometimes enter into a world of chaos...
Once Kim got the epidural, it was a waiting game until she needed to push -- nearly 12hours. At 3:15pm, Kim started pushing and was absoLUTEly amazing!! She powered through pain and frustration for over 4hours before the doctors finally made the decision to move to a C-section.

One of the biggest complications for Kim was that her body wasn't responding to the epidural. The pain would subside for about 30minutes, then surge back relentlessly. Because of this, the doctor tried a 'spinal tap' for the surgery, but it didn't take either. This is where I fell apart.

They put Kim under with general anesthesia and I wasn't allowed to be in there with her. Not only was I freaking out about not being with Kim through this life changing event, but we were both going to miss it altogether. After many tears and some prayer with my mom and mother-in-law, I went back to my chair outside the OR and listened ever so intently. I even video taped the door as I heard Baby-O cry for the first time. The word "helpless" comes to mind.

Eventually, the door to the OR opened and out came a nurse with the question I was waiting to ask her, "Boy or Girl?" Going off of Kim's instinct, I replied, "Boy?" She quickly responded with joy, "It's a GIRL!!" I -- being the emotional, exhausted, sappy wreck of my former manly self -- burst into tears, of course, and was taken to the N-ICU where Madelyn was bawling away... I followed in suit while I video taped and took some photos.

Anyway, I could go on for pages more. This is a beautiful thing, life.

about visitors...
Kim said she's totally game for visitors, but she wanted to be sure everyone knew that she's still a bit loopy from the post-op meds. If you would like to come by and meet Madelyn Grace, please call my cell first to see how Kim's doing and to let us know you're coming.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. I can't wait for you to see our beautiful little girl.

~Kurt

Baby-O's coming soon... My wife is amazing!

After quite a bit of pain and discomfort throughout much of last night and early this morning...

... Kim was finally able to get some rest after her epidural kicked in.
Since 6:30 or 7:00am yesterday (9.9.7), Kim hasn't had but an hour or so of sleep. The zzz's in the picture above lasted about a half-hour, but she's currently sleeping now after another hit of the "good stuff" from the nurse. She's doing SO great! I'm impressed beyond words at her ability to tackle this task with such grace.

Thanks for the continued prayers. I'll try to post more soon. The nurse told us it should only be a couple more hours! Woo HOOOO!!! Here's to hoping that she's right.

~Kurt (aka: BabyDaddy)

WE'RE AT THE HOSPITAL!!!

Sorry for this post instead of emails. I'm trying to get my email program to work on the hospital's wireless server.

Anyway, Kim and I are at the hospital with all the 'Grandparents-to-be'. She has her epidural and is getting some rest now. I'm just about to put my head down as well.

More to come. Please pray for a healthy baby and a problem-free birth!

~Kurt... YAY!!

9 days to new job...

Ok, Baby-O~

So your dad is about to start his new job on the 17th and he really wants to spend time with you. Why are you taking your time coming into this world? I'm serious, it's really great out here! You get food, hugs & kisses, clothes, naps, toys... you can even poop and pee whenever you want and your mom and dad will change your diaper and get you all cleaned up. Doesn't that sound great?!?!

Please, Baby-O, there are tons of people out here wanting to meet you and, again, your dad wants to spend lots of time with you before he starts work. Talk to you soon and love you like crazy already.

Sincerely,

~A concerned friend (aka: Dad)

Countdown finished-ish...

Well, we still don't have Baby-O in our arms and the countdown has come and gone. To save ourselves from focusing on this fact, and making it feel like this event-to-be is dragging on forever, we won't be continuing the countdown. We're both very anxious for Baby-O to get here and are trying to keep our focus on things that aren't baby-related.

Also, please keep praying for Kim as she's getting more and more uncomfortable with every passing hour. She's doing a great job focusing on other things, but people's comments and questions while we're out in public (along with looks of shock and horror... no joke) re-appropriate her attention to her discomfort. That may have been funny for me to see the first couple times since she's pointed it out, but poor Kim is living it daily. She is so amazingly strong!

We have an email list set up so you will all get notified when we head off to the hospital. I'll also try to post something on here and make phone calls as soon as we've got our baby in our arms -- or down for his/her first nap.

Here's to the little one coming as soon as possible. Thanks for the prayers.

~Kurt