We are lucky enough to have a number of friends in the Boulder area and beyond who are having kids around the same time. (Sort of amazing, considering how old I am!)

On Tuesday, August 20, our good friends Ben and Kyla brought over their son Luke, who was born on March 7th and thus is now almost 5.5 months old. Devon and I were so amazed at how much a baby can grow in five months that we totally forgot to take a picture of Luke and Sydney together! Here is a photo of Sydney from that day and one of Luke I scammed off their family blog:

Sydney Wright

Luke Pearlman

We didn’t make that mistake last night, when our friends Michael and Sarah came over with their new daughter Evelyn. Evelyn was born July 22, so is only 13 days older than Sydney. You can see from the photos below it is actually hard to tell which one is bigger at this point. It seems Evelyn is bigger but Sydney might be a bit taller, as she is trying to prove in the third photo!

No, I am not talking about 18 years down the road. I am only talking about this morning.

As part of the early weeks, parents are encouraged to keep a schedule of feeding and “elimination” to make sure everything is on track. Here is mine from this morning, when I generally take over full duties and allow Devon and our nurse, Florence, to sleep:

5:45 AM Fed breast milk from bottle (3 ounces)
6:15 AM Bowel movement & change diaper
6:20 AM Threw up all over the kitchen counter; changed clothes
6:30 AM Fed breast milk from bottle (.5 ounce)
6:35 AM Slight throwup
6:40 AM Finished feeding another 1.5 ounces

It was a rough morning, considering I woke up at 5:30 AM and had to deal with two feedings, two throw ups, one “elimination”, and one change of clothes all before breakfast. It’s never quite clear why some mornings Sydney will throw up when most she does not. In this case, I probably changed her, lying her on her back, too quickly. It is also possible the long time since her previous feeding, four hours and 45 minutes, made her eat too quickly.

Anyway, it is all worth it. Here is Sydney now as I write this.

It is a new world and it only took Sydney five days of her young life to make the Internet’s news. It wasn’t the New York Times but the Pellman’s Automotive Soccer Club writeup is a close second in fame and prediction of future success.

http://www.pellmans.org

My good friend and teammate wrote a review of our first Over 40 League soccer game of the new season and included two mentions of Sydney, including a crystal-ball flier that she will captain the 2031 Pellmans co-ed team. I’ve included a link to the PDF below in case the online writeup disappears before that date!

Sydney first mention on the Internet

Almost the entire time during Devon’s pregnancy, the doctors told us Sydney was well below an average size. They would do various estimates and throw out percentiles such as 45%, 30%, or even 20% of average.

This worried us a bit since I am just above average height for a US male and Devon is quite a bit taller than average. Plus, Devon was nine pounds at birth!

However, the doctors always told us not to worry and, amazingly, Sydney came out at 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Today, at her 12-day checkout (that stands in for a two-week checkup) she weighed 7 pounds, 15.5 ounces and is 21.75 inches long. The doctor was quite impressed, since at this point they are really just hoping babies have gained back the weight they always lose in the first few days.

In fact, see the chart below, which shows Sydney at the 98-99th percentile for height for two-week old girls! She comes out at the 50th percentile for weight and the 85th for head circumference. Keep in mind, babies change quickly, a few days can make a big difference, and the measurements (especially height) are not entirely accurate.

Still, Devon is quite relieved and our battles over who gave Sydney the short genes are probably over!

Sydney is mostly quite relaxed and calm. However, when she is ready to eat .. before we are quite ready to feed her .. she gets very excited. Here are four photos I took in about eight seconds as Sydney showed off her dance moves, lying on her back on our ottoman. However, I like to imagine she is dancing upright with the background being a dark wall!

It is hard to get good baby photos when babies are still infants. For one thing, they don’t smile yet and so getting a good facial expression is just pure luck. For another, it seems like most newborn clothes are white, which don’t show up that great in photos.

Here are a series of good photos of Sydney lying on a bed:

And one more to provide an idea of how small she is!

Below is the email birth announcement I sent out to many of our friends and family around 8:15 AM on Monday morning, August 5th, along with the photo included here.

Hello Friends and Family,

I am extremely excited to announce that Sydney Hudson Wright was born at 8:32 PM last night, Sunday, August 4th. Sydney weighs 7 pounds, 10 ounces and is 20.5 inches long.

Devon is doing just fine. The process started at 2:45 AM when Devon’s water broke, making it almost 18 hours of labor. The process went from “a nightmare from hell” to “I love this epidural”. After that, things went smoothly and Devon was a champ during the final pushing. We are both very excited to have a new addition to our family.

We chose the name Sydney because Devon studied abroad in that city during her undergraduate years and had one of the best experiences of her life. She has wanted to name a girl Sydney since then and now the opportunity finally presented itself. We chose the name Hudson to honor Devon’s grandmother Henrietta, in keeping with the family tradition of using the same first letter as someone who was very important but who is no longer with us, and to connect to Devon’s roots in New York by recalling the Hudson River. I myself am very happy to bring another Wright into the world!

As I write this, Devon is in a well-deserved sleep in our room and Sydney is sleeping beside me. A new life for all three of us!

Allan