Guten Tag from Bacharach

Guten Tag from Bacharach, Germany!

Just to let you know, we arrived safe and sound with no troubles and got on our first train to Bacharach and arrived by noon.

Maddie has been the perfect little traveller, keeping our seat mates entertained on the plane. She only let out a little cry when she was hungry. We did not get the bassinet like we had hoped, but it worked out ok anyway. We were concerned she wouldn't sleep at night when we were supposed to be sleeping but she has done better than we could have ever hoped for! We all finally crashed around 6 O'clock last night and laid down to sleep. She went to sleep right along with us and she didn't wake up until 5:30 (Mom was the last to get up at around 7:30 when Maddie needed to eat.)

We are staying in Pension Lettie where our host Lettie has prepared a wonderful room for us and a wonderful breakfast to boot.

Germany is absolutely gorgeous, we wore shorts yesterday and we are wearing them today as well. Luckily we were told that tomorrow will be a bit cooler(because we only packed 2 pairs of shorts). If you had picked up one of these little German towns and transplanted it in to the US I would tell you it was TOO German. Everything is how you would probobly picture Germany to be.

We plan on touring Reihnfields castle as well as cruising the Rhine on a boat today. The area of the Rhine that we are staying at has over 17 castles in an 60 kilometer stretch. The castles were built by "Robber Barrons" that would force boats carrying merchandise up the Rhine to stop and pay a toll. Yesterday as we were trying to stay awake we rode the train about 40 kilometers north and it seemed like out one of the windows there was always a new castle popping in to view.

I will probobly make a blog post tomorrow morning as well as I am making this post from Lettie's laptop at breakfast.

Our first Miniken Cabin day with Maddie!

Maddie visited the Miniken cabin for the first time this last weekend. Jim and Jana Miniken have been family friends for a very long time. I think Jana figured I was 4 when they met my parents. They bought a cabin on a lake up in Snohomish county about 15 years ago, and I've spent many wonderful days there. And this was Maddie's first time there. It was a gorgeous day! Though the water was still cold... Ryan was brave enough to jump in.Little cousins Ally and Isabella were there and we had fun with them too. They played on the dock, and Ryan finally convinced them to go for a canoe ride.







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Easter

We had a lovely first Easter with Madeleine. We went and did the traditional Easter dinner with the Smith family, and were happy to see everyone and have them meet our girl. There is another little one in the Smith family, Tayler, who is lots of fun and we can't wait till Maddie is old enough to know how to play with her. Tayler already seems to like Maddie, and she likes to reach out and pat her head, very cute. Sadly, this may be our last Smith Easter dinner in Oregon. We've decided we want to ground ourselves at our home church, and being here for Easter will be part of that. But we'll have fun with Easter egg hunts at our own home.

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.

Our Birth

It was Saturday night and we had just decided we needed to go to church in the morning because last week we didn't go because we didn't want people saying (or at least I didn't want people saying) "still no baby?"...but we'd used that excuse once, and there STILL was no baby. And then I thought my water broke, so we made some calls and had our midwife and doula on alert. 30 minutes later it was apparent that we would not be at church in the morning, but that would be because there would be a baby! How exciting. Labor progressed fairly quickly with no complications. My dream birth was a natural one with no interventions, and we achieved this. Our doula, nurse, and midwife were a great team for Ryan and I. I used a birth tub to labor in, but Maddie was not born under water. Ryan decided at 5 in the morning he should make the calls to the family to let them know they should be on their way to the hospital...and it's a good thing, because at 6 the midwife made it to the hospital and discovered I was ready to birth a baby, and 1 hour later Madeleine Ava entered the world at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21 inches long. We have a few pictures of the birth we'd like to share. Our experience was wonderful and beautiful, and are thankful to our LORD for such a precious gift.