2.5 months

Quick post to say hello

Friends and family!

Dylan has met a lot of friends and family over the past 9 weeks!

So, we put together a gallery of pictures of various people she's met and will continue to add to it.

Please feel free to skip to the bottom of this post to check out the pics if you like. But one of the main reasons we started this site was to document highlights of Dylan's life and progress along the way. A picture is worth a thousand words, but some words to add context can be helpful. Hoping to create something she (and perhaps a baby brother if that's in the cards) can look back on in 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Long winded narrative begins in 3..2..1.....

Dylan's Grandma and Grandpa Doan and Aunt Amber were the first to meet her. She was hard to miss since they were in the same room!

Our friend Kami was her first visitor at the hospital, followed by Shari.

Uncle Joel and Aunt Denise met her at home.

Our friend Iliana and her daughter Gigi came by a few days later.

Shari brought her daughters Abby and Sam later on too.

"Uncal" Ed and Michelle came for an overnight trip from Phoenix on Feb 24. They brought a bottle of Dom Perignon and a Wagyu Tomahawk steak (Google it. Amazing).

Next up, Grandpa and Grandma Ladd all the way from Brunswick, Maine. They drove roughly 2800 miles in 3 days. I don't think most teenagers with an IV drip of coffee (or anything stronger) could maintain that pace. On their way back home, they drove from Tucson, AZ to Hope, AR in one day.  That's 17 hours per Google Maps. Don't try that at home.

Our friend Connie came over to say hello.

Paul and Wendy from Phoenix came to spend a night and see our beautiful girl. What a blast we had :)

Dylan's Great Aunts Kathy, Betsy and Sue came for a visit (Grandpa Doan's sisters), all the way from Illinois and Florida. We spent a wonderful Thursday afternoon visiting with them, and then a nice party on Saturday where Dylan met even more family, including Kari, Amy, Karlie, Chloe and Bree. Jay and Cora, Nancy, and probably some others I'm forgetting (sorry)!

We brought her into Dad's office at VIP Mortgage in Tucson, and met lots of Mom's former co-workers, too many to list and we didn't get one picture. Fail.

A couple days later we went to VIP's corp office in Scottsdale, where Dylan was greeted by even more friends and co-workers. She met a lot of new friends, but spent the most time with Denise.  As a side note, Mom and Dad met through VIP Mortgage when he was working in Scottsdale, and she was in Tucson. Dad wanted Mom to move to Phoenix.  We live in Tucson. Enough said.

Second side note, this was Dylan's first road trip and she did great!  Not a peep out of her during the 2 hour ride there. She was a little fussy on the way home, but so was Dad. Long day!

So without any further delay, here's some more pics :)

2 months!

Dylan had her first set of shots yesterday, but she handled it like the awesome baby she is. She cried of course, but recovered within a minute and was back to her happy self.

She's been a little sleepier than normal, but that's about it for side effects. The nurse told us some babies pass out from the experience (that is shocking!) but this was less troublesome than missing a feeding by 5 minutes for her, so we're happy.

Some tidbits for posterity:

• She recently graduated from Newborn to Size 1 diapers. These should take us to 14 pounds or so.


• She is really starting to recognize us, follow our movements, smile and laugh.


• Dr Beth was very pleased with her progress at her 2 mo appt. All vitals are great, neck control and awareness looking very good.


• She continues to be a very good sleeper, waking up to eat every 3-5 hours or so, but has never kept us up for hours on end. We feel very fortunate for that!


• She's still working on understanding the Pythagorean theorem.


• Looks like she might be a great soccer player the way she kicks her legs.


• She's a whopping 10.4 lbs! Almost 4 lbs of wholesome breast milk packed on since birth.

Here's a growth chart as an added Nerdy Dad bonus.

Sad day :(

Sadly we lost our precious Sasha yesterday 4/3/18. She was diagnosed with Splenic Hemangiosarcoma (cancer) on 7/9/17.  Based on the tumor that was growing and spreading, they gave her a few weeks, maybe a couple months to live.  We did some research and found some supplements that are believed to help with situations like this.  Twice a day she'd take 2 Yunnan Baiyao and 2 Turkey Tail pills with the help of some peanut butter or Easy Cheese.

She was with us for 9 months after that terrible day we got the news, so we're so grateful for the extra time and of course that she got to meet Dylan. Ashlynn said Sasha was pleased with our progress over the past 7 weeks and felt it was safe to leave Dylan with us and it was her time to go.  We'll miss her a ton.