Adele Cassyl, originally uploaded by scottpartee.

Adele Cassyl
Born: September 9, 2007 at 10.02 CET
Weight: 3,830 grams (8 lbs, 7 oz)
Hospital: Privatklinik Döbling, Vienna, Austria

We are pleased to announce the birth of our sweet, adorable, daughter. Adele has brought much joy and fun to all of us, especially Maple. She loves her baby sister! She kisses her, reads books to her and sings songs to her. If she hears Adele crying, she says “I’m coming Adele!” and runs to her side. We’re all doing well and happy to be a family of four.

Adele is named after the Gustav Klimt painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. The painting was confiscated from the original owner by the Nazi government of Austria. Shortly after we moved here, it was returned to the family. The painting was then sold for one of the highest prices ever paid for a painting and is now on display in New York City at the Neue Gallerie. Before she left, Adele’s face was all over Vienna on posters saying goodbye to the painting – “Ciao Adele!”. We love the painting and the name, and both will always remind us of Vienna.

Cassyl, her middle name, is a family name on her mother’s side. Adele’s grandmother’s great aunt was named after the doctor who saved her life when she was born. Since then, the name has been passed down to each subsequent generation starting with Halane’s mother.

Our initial and substantial concerns about trying to go through the whole ordeal of bringing a child into the world in a foreign country were alleviated completely when we met the capable, friendly and generally awesome Dr. Stefan Zawodsky. Equally amazing was the Clinic Döbling, where, believe it or not, we had a great time. We even stayed an extra day longer than with Maple by choice. The hospital and care were unbelievably excellent. Our whole family all stayed in a private room with 2 beds, a balcony, and easy access to a garden. We had good food with room service for all of us. Halane even had massages and physical therapy included in the basic postpartum care, which was actually less expensive and more comprehensive than what we received in the States.

Every nurse was a midwife and they were super caretakers. At night, no one ever came in our room. If they came in during the day and saw that we were sleeping, they just left. This allowed us to get plenty of sleep and actually enjoy our new baby. This is the opposite of the hourly torture we endured with the delivery of our first baby. New families and their visitors socialized and enjoyed tea and fruit in the beautiful common area with fresh flowers and lots of light and toys for the older siblings. The beautiful garden allowed us to take long walks with Adele and Maple. All of this aided the healing process and had a positive effect on Adele. Since we weren’t harassed by hospital staff, we felt relaxed and happy.

Basically, we can’t say enough positive things about our doctor, hospital and hospital stay.

Of course, you can follow Adele’s progress via Flickr as her father obsessively cronicles every minute of her existence as he did with Maple (http://www.flickr.com/photos/partee).

Additional links:

Birthday of Adele full set for those with the obsessive need to see a minute-by-minute account of our stay at Döbling.

Birthday of Adele abridged for those with limited time or interest.

Geburtsanzeige from the hospital (announcement) with incorrect birth date

All about the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

A photo of a Ciao Adele poster and some background information.