Ryan and the girls ... May 24, 2008
Laura Birnbaum was kind enough to bring Katie and Ashley out to the hospital to see Ryan (and us). She helped them pick out some flowers to bring to Heather and Ryan. They were very excited to see their new baby brother and had a lot of fun holding him. Here's the first picture of our new family of FIVE!
Ryan Joseph Stucki ... May 23, 2008
Ryan was born yesterday, May 23, 2008. He arrived 4 days late. He weighed 3.8 Kilos (8 lbs 6 oz.). 
Heather did great, although her epidural wore off and they tried multiple times to fix it, only getting her the right dosage after about 30 minutes of SERIOUS pain (at least pain in my hand, holding hers, as she squeezed it in agony...OK, I am sure hers was worse than mine, but I am writing this blog!). Fortunately they got it right about 10 minutes before delivery and everything went quickly and smoothly from there. It was the second anesthesiologist who solved the problem, which is why he gets his picture in this blog.
Ryan is perfect. He let out a few tiny cries at first. His cry so far has been relatively quiet, almost like a full cry that is on soft mute. If this will be his cry for the future, count me in. He now just makes these tiny whimper noises, like a puppy. He is so small. Ashley is going to seem like a giant compared to this one! I remember bringing Ashley home from the hospital and only then did we realize how grown up Katie had become
He slept all night with the baby nurse, allowing both of us to sleep through the night (last chance for a while). She told us he slept from 10PM until 6AM. Again, if this is his sleep schedule, sign me up. I'm no fool to think that either his sleeping schedule or the decibal level of his cry will remain the same, but we can only hope!
Katie and Ashley spent the night with Jason and Laura Birnbaum and have not yet seen the baby. I'll go get them this morning and bring them to the hospital (by the way, the hospital, Telki, is like a hotel. We have our room with 2 single beds, room service, etc. ... very nice).
Thursday afternoon it all got started. We were told to come back yesterday morning, so we returned to the Dr. (Dr. Gyula Csermely) at 8AM yesterday to have Heather checked out. She was far enough along for the Dr. to tell us to meet him at the hospital at 1PM. Since we had time, we went to the immigration office to get our updated residence/work permits for our passports. We found that Ashley didn't have any blank pages left for the Visa, and Katie only had 1 left(what other 3 year old/ 5 year old is out of passport pages at this point in their life!!?) , so we went to the Embassy and had all our passports equipped with additional pages. They do it right there while we wait, which is very nice. And since I told the lady Heather was in labor, they did it extra fast!
From there we headed to the hospital, which is far out in the Buda hills. We had a simple lunch there before checking in. Ryan was born at 6:10 (we think, nobody recorded the official time, but was between 6 and 6:10).
Ashley has been super excited about "Baby Ryan" arriving. Katie was getting tired of going to school every morning and her friends/teachers asking her if the baby has arrived yet!
We are so excited to have this little boy join our family. We can not believe that we have 3 kids now. It will be a tough transition, especially here in Europe and ESPECIALLY around our travel methodology, as hotel rooms maximum is normally 3, which we usually got away with Ashley to a floor or shared bed with Katie. Now it will be much more difficult traveling now! :)
People ask us if having a baby in Hungary is hard. I think Heather would attest to the fact that having a baby is hard, but not because we are in Hungary. The experience has been great for her and she would tell anyone that except for the epidural issue, this has been maybe better than the last two in the U.S. and Canada. Although, admittedly, maybe she decides that the epidural issue was problematic enough to drop the experience down a few notches (and she suggested we photo shop out the mascara under her eyes, but since we don’t have photo shop I could not comply). Thanks to Dr. Csermely and Eniko, the mid-wife, for all of their help!
We are tremendously blessed to have this new little boy in our family, in addition to the two perfect little girls we already have. We are excited to go through these new experiences and looking forward to them.
Heather did great, although her epidural wore off and they tried multiple times to fix it, only getting her the right dosage after about 30 minutes of SERIOUS pain (at least pain in my hand, holding hers, as she squeezed it in agony...OK, I am sure hers was worse than mine, but I am writing this blog!). Fortunately they got it right about 10 minutes before delivery and everything went quickly and smoothly from there. It was the second anesthesiologist who solved the problem, which is why he gets his picture in this blog.Ryan is perfect. He let out a few tiny cries at first. His cry so far has been relatively quiet, almost like a full cry that is on soft mute. If this will be his cry for the future, count me in. He now just makes these tiny whimper noises, like a puppy. He is so small. Ashley is going to seem like a giant compared to this one! I remember bringing Ashley home from the hospital and only then did we realize how grown up Katie had become
He slept all night with the baby nurse, allowing both of us to sleep through the night (last chance for a while). She told us he slept from 10PM until 6AM. Again, if this is his sleep schedule, sign me up. I'm no fool to think that either his sleeping schedule or the decibal level of his cry will remain the same, but we can only hope!
Katie and Ashley spent the night with Jason and Laura Birnbaum and have not yet seen the baby. I'll go get them this morning and bring them to the hospital (by the way, the hospital, Telki, is like a hotel. We have our room with 2 single beds, room service, etc. ... very nice).
Thursday afternoon it all got started. We were told to come back yesterday morning, so we returned to the Dr. (Dr. Gyula Csermely) at 8AM yesterday to have Heather checked out. She was far enough along for the Dr. to tell us to meet him at the hospital at 1PM. Since we had time, we went to the immigration office to get our updated residence/work permits for our passports. We found that Ashley didn't have any blank pages left for the Visa, and Katie only had 1 left(what other 3 year old/ 5 year old is out of passport pages at this point in their life!!?) , so we went to the Embassy and had all our passports equipped with additional pages. They do it right there while we wait, which is very nice. And since I told the lady Heather was in labor, they did it extra fast!
From there we headed to the hospital, which is far out in the Buda hills. We had a simple lunch there before checking in. Ryan was born at 6:10 (we think, nobody recorded the official time, but was between 6 and 6:10).
Ashley has been super excited about "Baby Ryan" arriving. Katie was getting tired of going to school every morning and her friends/teachers asking her if the baby has arrived yet!
We are so excited to have this little boy join our family. We can not believe that we have 3 kids now. It will be a tough transition, especially here in Europe and ESPECIALLY around our travel methodology, as hotel rooms maximum is normally 3, which we usually got away with Ashley to a floor or shared bed with Katie. Now it will be much more difficult traveling now! :)
People ask us if having a baby in Hungary is hard. I think Heather would attest to the fact that having a baby is hard, but not because we are in Hungary. The experience has been great for her and she would tell anyone that except for the epidural issue, this has been maybe better than the last two in the U.S. and Canada. Although, admittedly, maybe she decides that the epidural issue was problematic enough to drop the experience down a few notches (and she suggested we photo shop out the mascara under her eyes, but since we don’t have photo shop I could not comply). Thanks to Dr. Csermely and Eniko, the mid-wife, for all of their help!
We are tremendously blessed to have this new little boy in our family, in addition to the two perfect little girls we already have. We are excited to go through these new experiences and looking forward to them.
Vorosmarty Ter ... May 10, 2008
While Heather was getting her Mother's day pedicure and manicure, I took the girls to the playground and the statue at Vorosmarty Ter in front of Gerbaud. They had more fun riding the lions than swinging on the swingset. Budapest is great this time of year.
John Farrell Concert AISB ... May 9, 2008
John Farrell, a children's folk singer came and performed for the AISB community and their families. He was quite good and the kids LOVED him and had a great time!
Katie's Mother's Day Program ... May 9, 2008
Katie invited Heather to a Mother's day program at HER school as well...
Ashley's Mothers Day Program ... May 8, 2008
Ashley invited Heather to her school for a Mother's day celebration.
Vienna, Austria
May 3-4, 2008
We decided to spend the weekend in Vienna, since this is probably the last trip we'll be able to take for a little while (meaning weeks, not months) and because it is 1) close enough to get back to Budapest in case the baby decides to come and 2) if we couldn't make it back, I would be more than pleased to have an Austrian baby in our family.
We left Saturday morning and made it quickly to Vienna, since the borders are now open (this is fantastic, and although it never cost us hours except for once, it was always a 15-30 minute hassle). We checked into our hotel and then went over to the Naschmarkt, where the popular, weekly flea market happens. I would imagine that if either Heather or I had an eye for antiques that there would be some good finds there, but since we don't and since the strength of the Euro probably erodes any good deal one could find anyway, we just mostly looked and walked, pushing the girls in the stroller through the crowds.
From the market we made our way to the Hofburg where the Vienna festival was happening this weekend. They have all sorts of activities set up on the grounds of the Hofburg and sprinkled throughout the city, particularly throughout the walk from the Hofburg to St. Stephens cathedral. There were a lot of people, but not too many to make it unbareable. We let the girls play around for a while, running on a "track" and running through a simple obstacle course.
We then walked to St. Stephens, or rather to Zanoni's gelato, which is right in front of the cathedral. We passed a number of the street performers, including the traditional "gold" person (this time it was a lady) as well as some musicians and jugglers.
We ate Zanoni's before walking back to the car to return to our hotel for the night. I took the girls swimming while Heather rested in the room. After we finished swimming and got showered and ate some sandwhiches for dinner, Ashley was asleep within 5 minutes of starting a movie and Katie soon afterward. I fell asleep not much later than the girls(it was 8:30 at this point, by the way, so nice to get to bed early!).
We woke up and got ready for church. We made our way to the ward on Gregorygasse. Seven years ago Heather and I attended church here while we were visiting over Christmas. I saw the family that I used to live with when I lived in Vienna in 1997 and we visited for a brief second. They told me that they still get a letter every once in a while from the bank that I had an account at while I lived there, saying I still had money in it. I guess the next time I am in Vienna I will stop by and see if I can get any of it. It was Shillings back then, but with the conversion to the Euro and the strength of the Euro over the years, maybe it is worth more than I thought when I left!
Unfortunately Sacrament Meeting was last, and since it was hard enough for Heather and the girls to sit through a German speaking Sacrament Meeting, let alone Relief Society and Sunday School, we decided to quickly drive over to the Boecklinstrasse building and attend there. Once we arrive there we found out it ALSO had Sacrament Meeting last, so we gave up.
We went over to the Natural History Museum, which Katie and Ashley really enjoyed. We parked the stroller at the front and let them wander through the aquarium, the Dinosaur exhibit, and the animal exhibits. This was a perfect museum for them.
We left there and got some Bratwursts that we ate in the Volksgarten. The weather was fantastic and it was nice to just sit in the middle of this park with the flowers mostly bloomed and relax for a few minutes.
We left the Volksgarten, checked out of our hotel, and drove back to Budapest. As I have said, we love Vienna and never get tired of it.
May 3-4, 2008
We decided to spend the weekend in Vienna, since this is probably the last trip we'll be able to take for a little while (meaning weeks, not months) and because it is 1) close enough to get back to Budapest in case the baby decides to come and 2) if we couldn't make it back, I would be more than pleased to have an Austrian baby in our family.
We left Saturday morning and made it quickly to Vienna, since the borders are now open (this is fantastic, and although it never cost us hours except for once, it was always a 15-30 minute hassle). We checked into our hotel and then went over to the Naschmarkt, where the popular, weekly flea market happens. I would imagine that if either Heather or I had an eye for antiques that there would be some good finds there, but since we don't and since the strength of the Euro probably erodes any good deal one could find anyway, we just mostly looked and walked, pushing the girls in the stroller through the crowds.
From the market we made our way to the Hofburg where the Vienna festival was happening this weekend. They have all sorts of activities set up on the grounds of the Hofburg and sprinkled throughout the city, particularly throughout the walk from the Hofburg to St. Stephens cathedral. There were a lot of people, but not too many to make it unbareable. We let the girls play around for a while, running on a "track" and running through a simple obstacle course.
We then walked to St. Stephens, or rather to Zanoni's gelato, which is right in front of the cathedral. We passed a number of the street performers, including the traditional "gold" person (this time it was a lady) as well as some musicians and jugglers.We ate Zanoni's before walking back to the car to return to our hotel for the night. I took the girls swimming while Heather rested in the room. After we finished swimming and got showered and ate some sandwhiches for dinner, Ashley was asleep within 5 minutes of starting a movie and Katie soon afterward. I fell asleep not much later than the girls(it was 8:30 at this point, by the way, so nice to get to bed early!).
We woke up and got ready for church. We made our way to the ward on Gregorygasse. Seven years ago Heather and I attended church here while we were visiting over Christmas. I saw the family that I used to live with when I lived in Vienna in 1997 and we visited for a brief second. They told me that they still get a letter every once in a while from the bank that I had an account at while I lived there, saying I still had money in it. I guess the next time I am in Vienna I will stop by and see if I can get any of it. It was Shillings back then, but with the conversion to the Euro and the strength of the Euro over the years, maybe it is worth more than I thought when I left!
Unfortunately Sacrament Meeting was last, and since it was hard enough for Heather and the girls to sit through a German speaking Sacrament Meeting, let alone Relief Society and Sunday School, we decided to quickly drive over to the Boecklinstrasse building and attend there. Once we arrive there we found out it ALSO had Sacrament Meeting last, so we gave up.
We went over to the Natural History Museum, which Katie and Ashley really enjoyed. We parked the stroller at the front and let them wander through the aquarium, the Dinosaur exhibit, and the animal exhibits. This was a perfect museum for them.
We left there and got some Bratwursts that we ate in the Volksgarten. The weather was fantastic and it was nice to just sit in the middle of this park with the flowers mostly bloomed and relax for a few minutes.
We left the Volksgarten, checked out of our hotel, and drove back to Budapest. As I have said, we love Vienna and never get tired of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)