I don’t know if it will be more amazing to you or if it is more amazing to Sydney and I to think that Maia was born over six weeks ago. People have told me several times that time flies much faster after you have kids, and boy are they right. Since we have neglected to update people appropriately on the things that have been happening, this message is intended to be a quick highlight of events from the last six weeks, by reading this I hope you’ll understand why it’s taken us so long to get updates out to you. You can see photos of most of these events in the gallery.
18 February – Part of the deal for us to go home after one night was to visit the Dr. in her office Saturday morning as she was worried about jaundice. We quickly realized our normal timelines for getting ready and out the door have drastically changed. It was -12 when we left the house. Maia was 6 lbs 10 oz. (10 oz less than when she was born) and healthy. Sydney lost 20 lbs since Maia was born.
19 February – The influx of people begin to come over to meet Maia. Specifically, Sydney’s father Hans and girlfriend Pat, Syd’s mom, Pam, her Aunt Kitty and cousin Savannah; and our friend Leah all visited on Sunday.
20 February – Second visit to the doctor, we were on-time to this appointment though. Well, close to being on-time. Maia was 6 lbs 15 oz and healthy, the doctor said she was no longer worried about jaundice – the time in the sun paid off. Syd lost two more pounds since Maia was born, total of 22 now.
Scott, one of my best friends, came and visited Maia along with Syd’s Grandma Polly and her mom Pam.
22 February – Sydney’s aunt Michael who was visiting from New Mexico comes over in the afternoon to meet Maia.
Later in the day, Mark and Carmen, good friends of ours come over and bring us dinner. Great food, good friends and a sense of normalcy as we hang out and catch up. Oh yeah and some ogling at a baby.
23 February – Maia’s now a week old. We didn’t have anyone come and visit us and relaxed – as much as possible.
24 February – I go back to work for the first time since Maia was born – thankfully I was so busy I wasn’t able to think much about how I would have rather been at home w/ Syd and Maia.
My mom, Vicki arrives to meet her newest granddaughter and to spend the weekend with us. Also, our friend Nicole stops by for a bit to meet Maia and to say hi while she was in town for the weekend.
25 February – Maia decided she wanted to meet some more people, so we went to visit Dede, Syd’s other grandma for the afternoon.
26 February – Sydney’s brother Ezra and his wife Paola bring lunch and visit for a couple hours.
28 February – Windsor, Sydney’s sister, arrives from Portland to spend a week in Wisconsin visiting us, and other family in SE Wisconsin. Oh yeah, she also wanted to play w/ Maia a bit.
2 March – Maia’s now two weeks old. To celebrate we go to the doctor and prove we have the parenting thing figured out by getting to the appointment ten minutes early. To thank us the doctor is over an hour late. Maia has now surpassed her birth weight weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz. The nurse measures her to discover she is 21” long – thinking an inch is too much growth in two weeks she measures her a second time and gets 20 3/4.” As that is more reasonable it must be accurate. The doctor thinks things are going great and that Maia is “perfect.” Sydney has lost another 8 lbs totaling 30 since Maia was born.
Later in the day, Sydney’s friend Susie stops over to meet Maia.
3 March – One of our first family excursions. We pack up and make the long trip to Pewaukee (about 30 miles) to go to Sydney’s dad’s house for dinner w/ the family. It was pretty awesome to get out of the house, but we almost had to break up a fight over Maia between Ezra and Hans.
4 March – Windsor spends the night again with us to get her last fix with Maia before going back home to Portland.
5 March – We break down and give Maia her first real bath as her belly button fell off a couple days prior. She didn’t like it much, but we had fun doing it.
Later in the day we went to visit friends that we made during out birth class, Joaquin, Tina and their baby Neera. Neera was born one week and a day after Maia. She was about a pound less than Maia – it was amazing how big Maia looked next to her!
9 March – Hans takes his girls, Sydney and Maia, out to lunch to visit Dede. They spend much of the afternoon together while I worked.
11 March – The best day in six months – OK that is an extreme exaggeration, but it was awesome. The day was about 50 degrees and we went on a bike ride for about an hour. Pam and Grandma Polly watched Maia while we were gone and it was the first time that either one of us had been on a bike since September.
17 March – Maia’s one month old doctor’s appointment, at the last appointment the Dr. told us that she should gain between .5 to 1 oz. a day – meaning she could weigh as much as 8 lbs 4 oz. Maia proved that averages are pure hokie as she was 8 lbs 10 oz. As I took her off the scale, I turned back in disbelief thinking we should re-weigh her. After realizing it was a digital scale I continued to get her dressed in disbelief.
18 March – Friends from my work, Jeremy and Ryan, and one of Syd’s friends from work Carrie come over for dinner and dessert. It was a mostly impromptu gathering, and great fun.
19 March – Kitty, Savannah, Grandma Polly and Pam came over to visit and we took advantage of the babysitters – Our second bike ride. This time it was much colder, but still a great time as we were able to ride with our friend Jeremy. It was his first time on a road bike, as he realized how much fun it was Syd and I realized he could be a great cyclist.
24 March – Syd’s first night out – without Maia. She went out for dinner with friends of her’s from high school, Liz, Dave and Annabel. Meanwhile Ryan and I stayed home watched a movie, had dinner and watched a baby.
25 March – Sydney wakes me up by screaming for help from Maia’s room. Upon walking into the room I learn it is because our innocent daughter had explosive poop – without her diaper on. Sydney had poo on her even though she was standing a couple feet away and it was on the floor, having shot out of her crib and landing over three feet from where she laid.
That evening we extend the distance traveled from home since Maia was born. We go to Pam’s house in Eagle (about 45 miles) for dinner with Ezra, Paola, their friend Aimee, and Grandma Polly.
31 March – The first party we attended. We went to visit the guys, Steve, Tim, Eric, Karl and Joel for Steve’s birthday. Ryan, Carrie, Adam, Lisa, and Brian also were there. Maia was a perfect kid hanging out and/or sleeping the entire time so we could enjoy people’s company and have a lot of fun.
