Our First 6 weeks!

Well, life is different, but getting back to "normal" a bit. As new parents I'm sure you can suspect that sleep deprivation has been the norm. Sleep for Ryan has been better than sleep for myself. I believe he hit his first 8 hour night the second week after Maddie was born...Though he doesn't get this every night.

Maddie was babysat for the first time before she was even 3 weeks old. For Christmas Ryan got me season tickets to the theatre in Olympia, and our first show was March 17th. Our babysitters ended up being sick, so had to get a replacement last minute, but our friends the Sartori's were great. Maddie seemed to do okay, and so did we.

We took our first real trip away from home when Maddie was 3 weeks old. We had a lovely shower hosted by the Preston ladies. We spent the night at G&G Tondre's. Then Ryan had training in believe, so we hopped over there to our hotel and spent 3 nights. Maddie did okay, sleeping with us in the big king bed. She didn't sleep very well in the travel bed we brought, but she was so new to the world, it was anticipated.

After that we picked up Kyle (Ryan's Brother, Maddie's Uncle) from the airport as we had him flown in from Boston to see his little niece for the first time. Bob and Sue came up from Silverton the next night and spent the rest of the week with us.

The next week Maddie got her first cold...And I had it too. It was sad to have her so stuffed up in her nose. But she's been getting better, though we still have to use the aspirator on her nose and she absolutely hates it.

A couple weekends later we took a daytrip to Salem as Bob and Sue's good friends had a shower for Maddie there. It was a very nice time to get to see family and friends, and other than Bob and Sue, was everyone else's first time to see Maddie.

We've been taking walks, going out to eat, and resting when we can. Maddie has grown (we think she's over the 11 lb. mark) and has become very strong (at six weeks she holds her head well and puts her weight on her legs) and is learning to smile and coo. It will be a wonderful day when she breaks out in laughter. She poops a lot, and often just as I'm changing so we go through more diapers, and I go through more clothes. She goes shopping with me, and does very well in her Bjorn or sling. She's a pretty snuggly baby, likes to be held and sleep in your arms. At two weeks she got baby acne, which has been clearing up, and now she has a bought of dry scalp. She's our precious princess and think she is the most beautiful thing we've ever seen. We love our new family, and we're all doing pretty well.