Economic Update

I figured with President Obama making a visit to Russia this week that this may be a good time to update everyone in the US on the economic front over here. Unemployment is now at 9.9%, which is down from 10.2% and is the first decrease in over a year. It also appears as though some of the construction that was halted has started again. Wages in arrears, a concept that we in the US are not at all familiar with, increased by 10.8% in May to 8.78 billion rubles ($282 million). Overall, the state of the Russian economy is not much different from that in the US at this point. There is a glimmer of hope here since oil prices have been on the rise and the economy is mostly reliant on natural resources, but we'll see how that plays out over the next few months.

Below is a link that provides information on inflation, which I guess should make me happy since it has come down, although I'm not sure that a decrease from 14% to just over 11% is all that much to get excited about.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1009/42/379341.htm

Katya's Homecoming

After 4 days of living in the lap of luxury it was time for Olga and Katya to face reality and head home with daddy. Poor Olga, going from six meals a day to whatever we/I could make and whenever we could get it into baby K's schedule. For those of you in the US, that's right, Olga stayed at the birthing center for 4 days after giving birth...and there were no complications! Try to find that in the US! Don't they kick you out after two days there??

Pavel, a co-worker and friend of Olga's, was kind enough to take time out of his Saturday to take me to the birthing center to pick up Olga and Katya. I'm not sure how these days are handled in the US, but the Russians make a huge deal out of leaving the birthing center. We went to Olga and Katya's room to pick them up and then moved down to the first floor where Pavel and I were shuffled off to a waiting room and Olga and Katya went into a changing room where Olga put on Katya's coming home clothes.

As Pavel and I waited for Olga and Katya to make their appearance we watched the goings on of another couple that was leaving. First off, there were at least three cars in the procession and no less than 8 people there to take them home. Second, they had a professional photographer taking pictures and the staff of the birthing center taking a video of the event. Third, there was some guy outside holding two handfuls of balloons in front of the car that I assumed the child would be leaving in.

After all this, poor Katya was greeted by just her daddy and Pavel. No professional photographer, no video and no balloons. I'm not sure she cared too much (see the pictures). As you can also see from the pictures, I'm a natural at holding a newborn baby...NOT! In the end we all made it home safely and when we got there Olga and I sat on the couch and looked at each other and said 'OK, now what do we do?'. Still wondering on that question sometimes.

See what I was talking about above....sooo not a natural!!

The very proud parents.....still not looking too comfortable here.

Hey, let's try out the bouncer! Katya was not so impressed.

Эта Я....Катя! (It's me...Katya)

After 9 months of anticipation and having Olga read to me what was happening to our little girl during each week of the pregnancy our little bundle of joy finally joined us. Екатерина Елизавета Льюис (Katherine Elizabeth Lewis) was born at 7:49PM Moscow Time on June 30th. She made us wait a bit longer to see and hold her than we had anticipated (her 'due' date was June 25th), but the wait was well worth it!

We went in on Monday the 29th to see Olga's doctor and she told us to come back on the 30th at 8AM, as she didn't want to have Olga go any longer and was going to induce labor. I know that I was a bit shocked to hear that, but mostly because it finally sank in that we were going to be responsible for a little person that couldn't communicate to us what she needed or wanted (well, no more than a cry or a fuss that we would need to interpret). We had another ultrasound on the 29th that showed all was well with the baby and we went home to plan our attack for the next day.

We arrived at Перинаталный медицинский центр (Perinatal Medical Center) at about 8:30AM and after a brief check-in I was shown the locker room to change into the scrubs, Olga was checked out and changed into a robe and off we went to the birthing room. I know that you have all heard me say this quite a bit, but the accommodations and the personnel at Перинаталный are SOOO much better than at the Soviet-style place that we had been going to...it was like night and day.

Once in the birthing room, which reminded me a bit of a surgical room, Olga's doctor came in and checked her out and then began the inducement around 9AM. The contractions started around noon and the epidural was administered around 2:45PM...so much for the LaMaze breathing techniques that we learned from the video we bought. Around 6PM the real pain started and the nurses came to the rescue with the second epidural. Or did they? This one didn't seam to do much for the pain. I have to admit that it was killing me to see Olga in that much discomfort and I would have done anything to take the pain for her (I'm sure I would have changed my mind after feeling that first strong contraction!).

Around 7:15 everyone agreed that Olga was ready to deliver and they gathered the team for the main event. Olga pushed for first time at 7:30 and little Катя (Katya) made her debut at 7:49PM. OK, she's not really that little. She weighed in at 3.83 kilos (8.4 pounds) and 53 centimeters long (20.87 inches). It is true what they say, that first scream from your child is the best sound that you have ever heard. A few hours later they sent us to Olga's room and took little Katya for a more thorough check up. All in, it was most definitely the best day of my life to this point. I now have not one, but two beautiful Russian women in my life.