Olivia

I thought I'd give more of a background on Olivia today. I guess I should start at the beginning. I was living in Massachusetts. I'd rather not get into much detail about her natural father and myself because I wasn't very smart and was extremely naive. Sufficed to say it was a very rocky relationship when I got pregnant. He wasn't very supportive and involved unless it suited him. And as I told my daughter He lied to me very very badly. In the end he decided not to be involved.



I developed pre-eclampsia. I was working in retail 40 hours a week on my feet with no chance to sit like the doctors told me to. 9 nine days till my due date I was whisked out of my doctors office into the hospital and induced because my blood pressure was high and they'd found elevated levels of protein in my urine. Pre-eclampsia can be very dangerous for both mother and child.



I was mostly bored waiting for my baby to come. It was nearly sixteen hours of doing nothing but sitting there with a fetal monitor around my belly and an automatic blood pressure cuff that went and tried to squeeze my arm off every 20 minutes or so. I did have a TV in my room and spent the time watching horror movies. It was the only thing on I was even partially interested in. The nurses and I made lots of jokes about what this meant to my baby would she be a zombie?? You really had to be there. No, really then maybe the time would of gone faster. Anyway at 3:06 am Olivia was born. Oh my god it was so incredibly easy. I wasn't in much pain at all. (Don't worry I more than made up for it with Abigail!!) I think now it was so easy because someone knew how tough it was going to be on me later on.



She was born weighing only 5 lbs 8 and half ounces . I still don't know the other 45 lbs I had gained came from. She was so tiny. I was worried I wouldn't be able to take her home because she was so small. We did have to stay an extra day at the hospital however for me my blood pressure took its time coming down.



So I was a new mom!! I never knew how intense it would be to hold my own baby in my arms. I felt as though I'd had a hole in my heart my all my life that I'd never even knew of until the minute no second she was put in my arms. I was complete. It was me and Olivia against the world.



She came home a little jaundiced. Had her first doctors appointment a few days earlier than most newborns because of her size and jaundice appearance. I breast fed her. I knew that would help her jaundice and it did slowly we almost put her under the lights to get rid of it. As it was for the first 2 years of her life when every she ate orange or yellow veggies her little nose would turn yellow. It took 3 months to double her birth size and become 10 lbs. Which is surprising cause she was a very good eater. very good.



I didn't think much of her passing her milestones a little late. I was a first time mother blind to any faults making little excuses for this and that. I had no close friends with children. My mother was 200 hundred miles away and 20-odd years out of practice with babies. Olivia was so happy, friendly, and outgoing even as a baby she'd give strangers big smiles.



Before she learned to crawl she rolled where she wanted to go. She like to roll to the stairs and then pull herself up them. She rolled for a long time before she crawled. I figured she knew the rolling worked so why bother trying to find another way of getting around? Besides she could climb up the stairs. I thought that made it ok.



She only started walking at 18 months because I realized that she needed help. 18 months and still crawling I knew that was not right. So every free chance I worked with her on standing walking and balancing. By the way her doctor didn't seemed that least bit concerned about her walking so late. I was starting to finally hear the bells that something might be off but was still trying to ignore them.



Finally, when I woke up was when my daughter went to daycare. All the other kids were starting to talk at age 1 and 2. Olivia had a few words but mostly grunts and pointing. She was unable to communicate with the kids at daycare so she bit them. A couple of them till they bled.



I had several meetings with the director there and signed so many slips of paper about her biting they finally recommend a service called Early Invention. It's similar to CDS here in Maine however it's only until the age of three. Olivia was 2 and a half when she got in. And after letting the biting go on for way to long the daycare informed me that she had to leave.



I was now in this world I knew nothing about.



Early invention promised the moon but never got us to the launch pad. They just didn't have the capacity. Olivia had to leave before she's gotten any real help. She had preschool one day a week for 2 hours and once month she would get one on one OT for an hour. No speech some sign language. very little sign language taught in the preschool. Then they shipped me to the public school system. Where they could take her but not until spring and for 4 hours day. It was July. I didn't know had rights. I didn't know what I could do.



This is a very sad point in Olivia's story for me. Just the horrible waste of time.



Around this time I met my husband. We decided to move to Maine where I had spent most of my childhood. And I wanted both my children to grow up without all the extra crime and drugs that the children there were blatantly exposed to. Not to be afraid to walk down the street. Especially with Olivia's outgoing and trusting nature. A child predators dream. This is still an issue we have.



2 months after settling into the town of Bath in a housing complex that we affectionately called "the ghetto".(No comparison to a real ghetto at all). We got Olivia set up with CDS.



Tomorrow, I'll Let you know what happened next. I didn't realize how long I'd been going on here. I'll try to keep it shorter on my next post.