Thank you to all our family and friends who have called and sent emails and snail-mail cards. After a week of chaos and sleepless nights, we are finally starting to get our mutual rhythm (as Ean put it in his comments below) with Maya. Ana is pretty much confined to the upstairs of our townhouse and feels like a "vaca lechera" (dairy cow), but we know that things will stablize with time. We may venture out of the house today for a little tour of the wine country, but it's hard to get out. As soon as Maya is sleeping enough to move her, she wakes up and wants to feed or needs a diaper change. Maya has 3 adults mobilized for her care, and it's amazing how the whole day can disappear by just attending to her needs. Ana, Maria and I are all completely in love with baby Maya, though. When she is sleeping or staring up at us with her crossed eyes, we slip into a trance... I can spend hours just looking at her, mesmerized by the miracle of life.

- Mateo

Papa baboso
 

La tormenta -- Huracan Maya
 

La calma antes de la tormenta...
 

Hola a todos: finalmente me doy un tiempo para escribir unas lienas sobre el "gran evento" de nuestras vidas. Fue y es una experiencia increiblemente bella, llena de emociones y dificil como todo lo hermoso en esta vida. Es algo indescriptible, hay que vivirlo para saber como se siente. Aun no puedo creer lo Mateo y yo hemos creado, la miro y me sorprendo a cada instante.
El trabajo de parto fue largo y doloroso, por eso la cara de cansada en las fotos. Mateo estuvo todo el tiempo a mi lado durante el parto, siempre soteniendo mi mano, realmente tengo un marido de oro.
Ahora que ya estamos en casa y el equipo de tres apenas da a basto para atender a la nina. Estamos pasando por los momentos dificiles de acostumbrarnos a ella y ella a nosotros. Llora de una manera increible, tiene su buen caracter la nina, a quie habra salido :)
Mateo esta embobado, enamorado, perdi ami marido, jajaja. Es tan lindo verlo con Maya en los brazos, literalmente se le cae la baba. Si vierna como calma a Maya, le habla y ella lo mira como si lo conociera desde siempre y busca su voz con su mirada.
Mi mama, que puedo decirles, es mi salvavidas, no se que hubiese hecho sin ella, sin su amor, paciencia y experiencia. Ambos me dan mucha paz y me ayudan a tranqulizarme en los momentos el que el llanto se hace interminable y me caigo del sueno.
Bueno, eso es todo por ahora, les seguire escribiendo en la medida que mis tareas de madre me lo permitan ;). Los queremos mucho a todos, gracias por todos lo e-mails, llamadas y el amor de siempre. Hasta la proxima.

Ana

Grandpa Clark and Baby Maya












Nani Beverly and Baby Maya














Aunt Cathie and Baby Maya













A moment of peace...
Note the cool booties knitted by Abu Maria!

Abuelas Adi y Maria! 

Grandma Adi and Grandpa Gary arrived today
to get their first look at baby Maya.



 

Maya doesn't want milk, she wants MATE!


 

Here are some close-ups of Maya Emilie Clark,
born Dec. 23, 2006 at 6:30 pm.
She is learning how to breast feed and is very alert.
Her birth was an amazing experience for us. Ana labored
for 10 hours and had a natural birth.
We are very thankful to our doulas Lisa Todd and Humm Berryessa,
as well as the amazing midwives, nurses and doctors at Kaiser.
We are all safely home and enjoying every minute of it!

Bonnie and Justin were AWESOME. They made us a turkey
dinner that was waiting for us when we arrived home.
This was a huge help for us after spending 2 sleepless days in
the hospital. It was wonderful to come home and have such a
healthy dinner so that we could regain our strength.
 

We came home on Chirstmas Day. It's great to
be home with our new baby girl!