ericandlisa

The dust is beginning to settle; all the family has left… and we are figuring out how to do this ‘baby’ thing. We can’t begin to articulate how grateful we are of our families and all of their time, money and love they spent here with us. 

We live on 34th street in a neighborhood called Hampden which is known for it’s kitchy gaudy pink flamingo’s and beehive hairdo’s still today.  The weekend of Thanksgiving, the street lights up for Christmas and closes down for a huge party… and the people keep coming every evening to see the lights, with another big party on New Years Eve. One of the neighbors actually comes out in a diaper as Baby New Year, as a ball drops from a street light!

Thanks to the hard work of my parents, sister and Doug and Dar; our house was ready! What a riot it was!!  Hooray for Max’s first “miracle on 34th street!”

So Maximilian is settling in.  He is truly a gift, albeit a gift that keeps you awake all night.  Oddly enough I was looking to get sleep on Monday night while in call in the hospital? Never a healthy thing.  However, the rest of the time he captivates Lisa and I and coming home from work carries a whole new anticipation these days.

Lisa continues to do great as a new mother and I’m amazed by her capacity (in multiple ways).  We are touched by all of you that have left messages for us.  We cant wait for each one of you to meet him, yet we haven’t the slightest desire at this time to venture beyond a few blocks. Fulfilled, fulfillment. Love and lots of it.

Hope everyone has a beautiful holiday. To excess in our hearts, minds and bellies.

Our Love

Our appreciation of all of your patience.  As you may know, some more than others, this has been a long and beautiful week.  It is to me the type of week that defines life, existence.  I have never been so happy, so distressed, so awe inspired, so grateful, so tired and so close to god, my wife, my family and my friends than during these past 6 days.

Max is wonderful and we are so happy to finally have met him. 

We will keep you all updated as we get the hang of the parenting thing as well as this website.

Hi everyone.  It’s finally Lisa here. We haven’t viewed the site since Friday…. Man how our life has changed! We are in a constant state of awe.  Our rough start just put it all into perspective…. we’ll take these nights of sporadic sleep over anything anyday, just knowing our baby is right here with us and sooo healthy makes our world so at peace.

Friday night into Saturday was insane.  I basically woke up for my normal trip to the bathroom at 0330 and next thing i knew we were on our way out the house at 0530. Those two hours were a blur, i threw up, had diarrhea and got myself showered all the while having the most intense contractions that were 30sec in length and 3-5 minutes a part. I had all of these romantic visions of a nice labor and had no idea that I was already in “transition.”  Nor did the woman at admitting in the hospital who wanted to verify current information as I’m having contractions hunched over her desk.  They sent us to a waiting room before I could be triaged and the nurse claimed she couldn’t find us…. not sure who the woman must have been on her hands and knees in the waiting room??!!  Once I was triaged and they realized I was 9cm already, away we went to deliver max. 

I knew he was in trouble when he came out; but I stayed positive. If I had any strength left; I would have gotten myself out of bed to ‘deep suction’ him; but the NICU was there so quick! He had cleared his secretions and crying well… Then it was just insane, horrible, scary, and I can’t even articulate how our thoughts raced…..

But we are SO home now and have our healthy little baby…. who by the way just woke up and is ready to eat. We love you all and are doing just fine!!!!

Here’s two selected photos, courtesy of Grandpa (Doug) McDade.