Emil Loves Chick-fil-A

If you ever get a chance to be around us for any amount of time, you may find out very quickly that we have a love teetering on obsession for Chick-fil-A.  Not only does this company make a top notch chicken sandwich, but they train excellent employees to server their customers.  They have a founder who has incredibly strong convictions that he has carried over into the business world.  AND, they offer free food to anyone willing to camp out in a parking lot at their new location Grand Openings.  Count this guy in as one of the Wranglers who has attended about 15 Grand Openings over the past 3 years.  With 52 free meal coupons at each Grand Opening, that’s a lot of free chicken.

Like father, like son.  We took Emil out for his first trip anywhere the other day (not counting the hospital, doctor’s office or quick church visit.)  Witni finally had a desire to eat Chick-fil-A again.  She had lost the desire during the pregnancy, which was a big blow to the diet of our household!  And thankfully, the desire to eat tasty chicken, fried in peanut oil with waffle fries and a big ole’ sweet iced tea, has returned.  All this combines for an Emil’s first trip to our favorite fast food restaurant.

You’ll see in the pictures below that Emil is not being swaddled by one of our baby blankets, but instead is wrapped in an “I Love Chick-fil-A” t-shirt, a prize that is dear to our heart, because it means I was one of the first 100 at a Grand Opening.  Translation – I won free chicken.  Just think, in only 18 short years, Emil will officially be able to follow the rules and register for his own chance at a top 100 Grand Opening.  It brings a tear to my eye to think of this great legacy that I am passing down to my son.

Filed under Baby Blankets, Funny, Pregnancy | Tags: chick fil a, family, first 100, free chicken, legacy | Comment (0)

We Have A Son!

I have a son!  My wife, Witni, gave birth to our son at 2:13pm on September 8, 2010.  The total delivery time from when her water broke at 5am on September 7th to when he was born was 33 hours.  33 hours of labor!  My wife is a superwoman.  And not only did she go through 33 hours of labor, but she delivered vaginally.  Unbelievable.  I was right there coaching her the whole way, and it must have been the hardest night of our life, but we were rewarded with our little boy!  Emil Regan Sztanyo was 6 lbs and 13 oz when he was born.  Emil (pronounced like Emmit) is after his great grandfather, a WWII veteran, Christian patriarch and humble man.  He is almost 89 years old, and he played a round of golf with my brother last week.  Regan means born into a royal family, which we believe he is born into THE Royal Family, those adopted by our Father.

What a joy and a blessing this little baby is to us.  We had been praying for him to come for a long, long time.  A few years ago, we were called out of a high school ministry, Young Life, and knew God was telling us to start this business and have a family.  A year and a half after trying, we were pregnant with little Emil.  And now, we know we are completely blessed by his arrival.  God gave us this blessing, and helped us through the delivery.  In fact, in those final hours of the night, as my wife was suffering through the pain and exhaustion, we prayed like we had never prayed before.  We prayed for this baby to come, for the pain to cease, for the desire to push (we never got to 10 cms), for mercy and for deliverance.  He heard or prayers.  There were so many scriptures going through our minds, but none more prevalent than this one:

¹ Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.² In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

³ Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.

⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Psalms 127

The sex of our baby was a surprise to us, and when he finally did come, they asked me if I wanted to announced what he was.  I was so overwhelmed with relief that it was over for Witni that I had completely forgotten we didn’t know what it was!  So, I looked down at our baby, as he was laying on Witni’s chest, and emotionally blurted out, “it’s a boy!”.  What a blessing!

I have so much to write that I think I could write a book.  Emil is 4 days old today, and he is doing better each day.  We are breast feeding, and after some help from a lactation expert at the hospital, little Emil has acquired the “taste”.  He is eating better and better each day.  He was a bit jaundiced, and we had to take him in for tests the past few days, but he didn’t have to go on the “billy” blanket.  He got a little sun today, which I think he rather enjoyed.  He has so many people who love him already that he doesn’t know how good he has it.

Ok, enough for now, I’ll be sure to write much more later.  If you want to watch a bit more of the delivery (PG rated), here’s a video.

Filed under Marriage, Pregnancy, Uncategorized, Videos | Tags: birth, children, emil sztanyo, kids, labor, Pregnancy, son, vaginal birth | Comment (0)

Closer and Closer to Our Delivery

I went with my wife, Witni to our 34 week checkup yesterday.  Our baby is going to be hear in about 5 weeks!  It is becoming more and more real.  I know for her, in this third trimester, it is beyond real.  That baby is moving and kicking like crazy!  It’s amazing to see this person grow inside of my wife, and I can’t wait to meet him or her.  Yes, it will be a surprise for us both.  We did not figure out what it was when we had the ultrasound.  We’ve had mixed reactions on that choice, but we are both very excited about that moment.

Now, I’m getting all prepared for the labor myself.  I finished reading Natural Childbirth, the Bradley Method, and I am ready to be a good coach.  We’ve even been practicing our relaxation exercises.  As I’ve talked with a lot of fathers about when their children were born, many were not involved in the delivery.  Often times I hear of those who waited in the hospital or even somewhere else for a call that the baby was born.  I can certainly understand on how that was a cultural norm for men, but I received a very thought provoking statement from a friend and a father of 5 on Sunday.  He said, “this is the last thing that you and your wife will ever do alone together.”  That is not only a powerful statement, but true!  If this is the last event that my wife and I get to do together before this baby comes, I want it to be a shining example of us working together as a team.  Early on in the pregnancy, I considered this job to me my wife’s, but now, I see that I can play a very important, caring, loving and serving role in the birth of our baby.  It’s the same role I plan on fulfilling as a father.

Right now, I’m watching a documentary Netflix called The Business of Being Born.  It’s very interesting.  I know I was unclear on the role of a midwife not a long time ago.  But now, I am pretty firm in believing this is an excellent way to give birth.  Our goal is to get through much of the labor at home, but then we will be meeting the midwife at the hospital when we are further along.  It may not be the choice for everyone, but this is the way we are going.

I can’t wait for this baby to come!  Life changing.  Life altering.  Thrilling.  Exciting.  How do you describe this event?  I’m sure, as in many things in life, you can’t explain, but only have to experience.  Here’s a picture of my wife and I at an awards banquet she was nominated for recently.  She’s so beautiful!

And some baby shower pictures…

Filed under Info, Pregnancy | Tags: labor, midwives, the business of birth | Comment (0)

Final Trimester – Getting Ready For Our Little One

Well, we have officially entered the final trimester of our first baby.  We’re so excited!  But with all the excitement, it’s easy to have fear creep in as well.  When it is  your first baby, there are so many unknowns.  We’re doing all we can to read up and be prepared, but no matter how much we read, we’re just going to have to go through the experience of labor to understand it.  Thankfully, there are really a lot of helpful resources out there.  I really like the bump.  Here is a great article about having a birth plan. Of course, even if you have a plan, there are always unexpected factors that can creep into the delivery.

As we are getting closer to the due date, we are preparing our home more and more.  We have finished painting our nursery (thanks mom!!!) and our crib and furniture are in the room.  It’s taking steps like these that make the pregnancy so much more real and exciting.  Of course, as baby is getting more and more active, it’s getting pretty hard to ignore!

We’re so thankful for friends and family who have asked about the pregnancy, and how we are doing.  We’re even more thankful that we will have a support group and a community when this baby is born.  We are excited to be parents, but are grateful for help.

We haven’t had a baby shower yet, but we have a few lined up.  We’ve even marked off a few of our favorite baby blankets from our stock that we would love to have for our little guy or girl.  Oh yeah, if I haven’t mentioned, it’s going to be a surprise.  We will know the sex when he or she is born.  Fun!

Here’s a pic of mama and baby on our babymoon to California.

Filed under Info, Pregnancy | Tags: baby, birth plan, labor, Pregnancy | Comment (1)

Pregnancy Week 13

My wife and I are 13 weeks into our first pregnancy.  For this entire first trimester, it has been a lot of nausea and even more fatigue.  As a husband, I have tried to make it as comfortable as possible for her.  As of now, she is working full time.  So, I can’t imagine how difficult it is to get up and go to work every morning while making a baby!  Crazy.  So, when she comes home every day, I’m trying to find out if she is more tired or more hungry.  If it’s tiredness, then go get your nap.  If it’s hunger, then I try to have dinner planned.  I’m working full time as well, but my hours can be more flexible, so I use that to our advantage.

Hopefully, the extreme tiredness and nausea will end soon.  She has show a few signs of it breaking, but we’re not out of the woods yet.  We’ve heard that the second trimester can bring some relief, and it can’t come soon enough.  Last week, we went out on a fun date.  I took her to Buca di Beppo’s for some yummy Italian, and then we went to the Cincinnati symphony.  However, with 3 acts in the evening, she could only make it through two.  So, it was off to home and the comfort of sleep.

Even with the difficulties that pregnancy has brought, the amount of joy has far outweighed the negatives.  We are thrilled at the opportunity to be parents!  Plus, we finally get to use some of these baby blankets for ourselves!

If you have any pregnancy advice for the weeks to come, let us know!

- Eric

Filed under Pregnancy, Uncategorized | Tags: date night, first trimester | Comments (2)

We’re Pregnant!!!

If you haven’t heard the news yet, we are pregnant!!!  This is such a blessing because we had been trying to get pregnant since the fall of 2008.  It has been a journey of faith, and we feel God is blessing us tremendously by answering our prayers.

My wife told me the news on a night that I was leaving for a Chick Fil A opening in Nashville, TN.  While I was feverishly packing up, she asked me to come in our room for a second.  She gave me a card that said, “we’ll miss you while you are gone.”  My immediate thought was, “typo”.  And then it registered… “WE”???  “REALLY”??!!!!????!!!!  We hugged and laughed and cried together all at the same time.  It was a precious moment that I’ll never forget.

Then, I packed up my car and drove 4 hours away for 2 days, leaving my pregnant wife behind to go score some free chicken.  I know.  Crazy, right?  Because of some health complications she had as a child, my wife wanted to keep the news to ourselves until we were further along in the pregnancy.  But, we are now nearly 13 weeks and everything is going great!  We’re still praying for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

So, as I take care of my sleepy, nauseous wife, we are looking forward to the great adventure of parenting that lies in front of us.

Watch the video below to see our church’s reaction to telling the news (a few in the room knew already and several folks were absent for the big news, but still a lot of fun!).  Hooray!  In September, we’ll finally get to use some of these baby blankets! 

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