Playing catch-up: part I

Dear Gabriel,

I am so sorry I haven't written to you in so long. I have been spending my days falling in love with you, with all your little rolls of fat, and your long fingers and toes. I have been learning what each of your different cries signifies, and am getting pretty good at calming you quickly. Now you are 4 days short of being a month old and it's time to play catch-up.

Let's start from the beginning.

As I have said, giving birth to you was the most beautiful experience of indescribable proportions. I still look at you and can't believe that you are made up of a little bit of me and a little bit of daddy. Nature is so incredible and it's something I didn't fully grasp at all until I held you for your first breath.

After delivery, your father went with you to have your first bath and to be checked by the doctors. You got a perfect report card from your pediatricians and everyone was so impressed with how quickly we both pulled off the delivery, how big you were, and how strong you are.

I went into my recovery room and met an English woman whose water had just broken. She went through about 3 hours of contractions in that room with us and later gave birth to Beatrice. We have already had 2 play dates with them. She is in the running for first girlfriend!

The hospital you were born in doesn't have a nursey, which is one of the things I loved about my experience there. I had 3 days of alone time with you right by my side. I hate sharing you! I was thrown into the world of mommyhood those first 3 days and had no choice but to figure everything out. Sink or swim! I remember you needed your diaper changed and I had to call a nurse to do it because I had no idea what to do, or was scared, maybe? I am a pro now!

I also was able to make sure nothing went into your mouth but my nipple! Breastfeeding you is the most important thing in my life right now. My day is shaped around making quality quiet time throughout the day for nursing you. It gives us a chance to close the door to everything going on and bond. Breastfeeding is another indescribable experience, and I cherish these moments with you. BUT, it hurts like heck and you really like to eat ALL the time. You have grown and gained so much weight already, which makes me proud of my milk :)

You are sleeping on my arm right now and I am typing with one hand. Your nose was clogged last night and I stayed up watching you sleep (badly) and breathe (badly). I am exhausted, but I am letting you sleep on my arm and not in your bed because it makes you feel better, and honestly it makes me feel better, too.

I will play more catch-up later.

I love you,
mommy

Gabi's stats

Everyone keeps asking and I keep forgetting to mention...


Gabriel weighed in at 3.915 kilos (8.63 pounds) and 55 centimeters (21.6 inches)

Our birthing story

Ok I figure a week is enough to get over the initial shock of giving birth...time to write about it.

As I said in the last post, I woke up Thursday morning with tell tale labor signs. Knowing it could still take days to deliver, I assured Gian that he could go to work and I would call him with updates. The day went on normally and my mom and I went for a long walk to encourage the baby along. Around 6:30 pm I called Gian and told him that my contractions were very weak but becoming more regular and averaging around ten minutes apart. I wanted to at least go to the hospital and have the experts tell me whether or not I was in labor. Gian came home and we decided to park the car in Trastevere (we live right above Trastevere in Monteverde) and walk the 15 minutes to the island hospital since I felt good and wanted to help speed along my labor. The entire walk there was calm and I was very excited. I kept thinking, if this really is labor, I can totally handle this without an epidural! HA!!

Once we got there, we very calmly checked into triage and they hooked me up to a machine which read my contractions and the baby's heart rate for about 30 minutes. Then they checked my cervix. I wasn't dilated at all and my contractions, though close together, weren't very strong. They decided to discharge me and send me home. The doctor told me since this was my first birth, I could go on like this for a few days. I told him I had a feeling we would be seeing each other sooner than he thought.

We left and started walking back to the car. On our way there, my contractions started getting stronger, and actually a little painful. Where I was walking and laughing through the contractions before, I now had to stop and breathe through them. They were also getting closer together.

We stopped and bought a bottle of wine and decided to grab some pizza at a local place near our house. Gian dropped me and my mom at our building and drove off to park the car and grab the pizza. As I was getting my keys out, I felt a rush of wet warmth on my jeans! I knew my water had finally broken. At the same time I had a horribly strong contraction and felt like I couldn't even walk! My mom didn't know where the pizza place was so I had to run to the restaurant with wet pants and in the middle of a very strong contraction.

When I got there I saw Gian and yelled out "my water broke" in English and with extreme pain and discomfort on my face. I must have looked so desperate (and I was) because the pizza guy looked at Gian with a face like who is this woman and what does she want? Gian said "Her water broke" in Italian and then proceeded to calmly pay and wait for the pizza to be wrapped up nicely. Then we ran to the car and Gian drove like a madman to the hospital. I told him that I knew the baby was well on his way. At this point I was feeling so much pain, there was no way that I wasn't dilated.

We got back to the hospital and they checked me in again. In that 45 minutes it took to leave the hospital and come back, I had already dilated about 3 centimeters, which is fast. I went out to the waiting room to tell my mom and Gian what was going on, and waiting for the wheelchair to take me up to the delivery room. I was in ridiculous pain. Gian and my mom would try to comfort me by rubbing my back and I would scream at them to not touch me. I feel very badly about it now, but I just was going into a panic.

Once I got up to the delivery room I was in a complete, full on panic attack. I didn't know what to do, what to think, how to breathe. I felt like I was in some torture movie. I was banging on the walls and screaming that I couldn't do this. As much as I felt the pain, I also felt like it wasn't really happening to me, like I was having an out of body experience. I walked into my room and said "Give me an epidural now" and they said they had to wait to examine me first and so I said "well then give me a C-SECTIONNNNNNNN, now!!!!!" Anyways, once I had the epidural, I was able to calm down and be in the moment. I still felt A LOT of pain though, girls, so don't be disillusioned into believing that an epidural takes away the pain. For me, it just took away the panic and allowed me to focus. But I was in an extreme amount of pain.

I was dilated to 10 centimeters within 3 hours and only had to push for about 30 minutes. My entire labor was just under 4 hours. For those of you that don't know, that is extremely quick for a first time mom. I am so proud of myself because I was really strong and was able to really focus on pushing and breathing through the pain. Gian was also so supportive in the delivery room, talking to me through everything and reminding me of what we learned in our breathing classes. He let me squeeze his hand as hard as I could! He even videotaped a lot of the evening. We have memories that will last forever.

Part of our life plan is to have 3 children, but during labor I kept telling Gian that Gabriel was going to be an only child. I was convinced that I wouldn't be having any more children. But now, I have forgotten all the pain, and can't wait to introduce more children into our family (all in due time). Having a child, especially going through the labor, is the most beautiful experience in life. It is impossible to put into words. Gian and I are so much closer now after going through those 4 hours together in the delivery room. We watched the birth of our son together, watched him take his first breath, scream his first scream, and it was an impossibly difficult time but I got through it with his support and encouragement. It was and will always be the best day of my life. Welcome baby Gabriel, we love you so much!

This is it....I think?!?!?!

This morning I woke with a strong, very strong, contraction. I waited in bed and 10 minutes later I had another one. Got up, went to the bathroom, and saw some signs (you moms know what I am talking about) that I was in the beginning stages of labor. I called my midwife (my mother-in-law) and explained what I saw. She said it's the beginning of labor, and according to what I saw, the baby had definitely started to push his head hard against my cervix. But then the contractions stopped for over 2 hours. Throughout the day, my contractions were at least 2 hours apart until recently, they started getting closer together. But the thing is they are quick and not excruciatingly painful, as I would expect. So I just don't know what to do...but I am so calm, in fact I even sent Gian off to work this morning because HE was stressing ME out! I just called him and told him to come home so we could go to the hospital and have them check my cervix. We were going to wait it out, but then my mom looked at me and said "if you go into labor here, we don't even have a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord" haha. Since ambulance time in Rome is really, really terrible, we figure better safe than sorry.

Here we go! Hopefully the next blog will be about my birthing story.

xoxo

40 weeks plus 3 days!!!

AHHHH I never thought I would be pregnant this long. I was convinced I would give birth before my due date...don't know why, but I just was. Well, I haven't. I am still huge. And yes I have already broken out my christmas pants.




In preparation for birth, I have been focusing a lot on keeping active, walking, stretching, and going to physical therapy for my back so that I won't have a hard time in the different birthing positions we have been practicing. Gianfrancesco has been hitting the gym because in one of the positions, he has to lift me from a squatting position to a standing position after each contraction. When we practiced in our birthing class, he had a hard time because, as you can see, I am already taller than him and pre-pregnancy weighed only a couple kilos less than him. Poor thing has to deal with lifting an awkwardly tall pregnant lady who has gained 10 kilos in 9 months. It can't be easy. Anyway, now he has these huge arms ready for lifting me. We are ready. House is ready, everything is ready. Just waiting for Gabriel.

If he hasn't come by Friday, we will meet with our doctor that afternoon to discuss our options. I really don't want to induce. I want that AHA moment where either my water breaks or I start having contractions and have to rush to the hospital. AND I feel sad to force my baby out if he isn't ready. But, there are tons of risks for leaving him in too long. I have been having my amniotic fluid levels checked regularly to make sure he is as safe as can be for the time being. We have also been having bi-weekly exams to check his movements and heartbeat over an extended period of time.

With all this extra time on our hands, we have been taking the opportunity to take as many cheesy pregnancy pics as possible:

40 weeks!

Tomorrow is my due date and I feel huge. Everyone keeps telling me I look like I am ready to pop, and I certainly feel ready. I have tried EVERYTHING that people suggest to help with jump-starting labor: spicy food, pineapple, skipping, walking (a LOT) taking the stairs (up to our 8th floor apartment at least once a day), coffee, bouncing on a yoga ball, and that one act that got me pregnant in the first place (minus the bad tequila shots in southern Thailand)....but NOTHING has worked.

I know it seems like I am rushing this baby along, but I have a major sciatica problem that gets worse every day as Gabriel gets bigger and lower, pressing even harder on my nerve. I am in constant pain and sometimes my right leg mini-collapses if the nerve is too inflamed. I just want to have my baby in my arms and start the new phase of this whole journey that is life and creating life, minus the back pain.

Ugh, enough of my rant.

Here are a few photos of our walk today on via Appia Antica, an old Roman road.

It was not the beginning....

I went to the doctor yesterday to monitor the baby's movements and my contractions. While Gabe is a major mover and shaker, I did not have any contractions during that period of time. Today I went to have my amniotic fluid and cervix checked. Cervix is still completely closed....no baby in sight!

Just false labor!

Still nothing...

The beginning?

Over night I was awake for a few hours with bad cramping (like menstrual cramps) and today I have been feeling a lot of pressure in the general baby making area. I don't know how to tell if they are contractions. I just feel mostly pressure, but not a lot of pain. Maybe this is the very beginning of the long road that is baby labor?

My recent fears are:

-going into labor without having eaten my most recent meal

-going into labor with dirty hair

So I am constantly eating and washing my hair.

Stay tuned! Here are my most recent belly pics at 39 weeks:

39 weeks

My mom has been in town and we have been on the go, running around getting things done (last minute baby stuff, baby exams, etc) and also just generally spending some quality time together, so I haven't had a chance to properly sit down and blog.

The rundown is that I have been having NO contractions and just feel pretty normal, albeit huge and uncomfortable, but overall not at all like this baby is coming anytime soon. Every day we go for a long walk at the park near my house (over an hour a day) but he isn't budging.

Here are a few pics of our Sunday at the park:


Only in Italy will you find an 80 year old woman walking with a cane and 3 inch high heels on bumpy terrain

37-38 week pics

Here is my belly at 37 weeks:







And 38 + 2 days:



Didn't he push out a lot in the past week? I feel huge. NOTHING fits. I can only wear tennis shoes and ugly, baggy clothes because I refuse to buy anything new. Today I went to the doctor again to monitor Gabi's heart rate, fetal movements, and my contractions. This is something I will be doing once a week until go time. Everything was normal and he moved a lot, showing off for the doctors. I showed NO signs of contractions, so I guess this baby isn't coming early afterall. I really was hoping he would come early because my mom is here only until December 4th. I am due 14 November. The docs won't induce me until 10 days after my due date, so if this baby decides to chill in placentaville past his due, it would only give my mom 10 days to get to know the baby (and HELP! me).

Here's to the waiting game....

I feel like a horse

I feel like I have been pregnant for FOREVER. Like years. Aren't horses pregnant for like 2 years or something? Maybe I should have googled this, but I am pretty sure none of you know either (except for one of you, you know who you are!).

I think also because ever since I found out (at 6 weeks), we have been so vocal about it, telling everyone and starting a really obnoxious and narcissistic blog all about myself, everyone else is sick of me being pregnant, too. I feel like I have been tooting my own horn for too long now. I want to start blogging about baby!

I can't wait to:
-do all of the obvious things moms want to do with babies (kiss feet, pinch butt, squeeze cheeks, etc)
-Eat a carbonara
-SLEEP ON MY BACK
-Take my shoes off by myself
-See my bikini area
-Hit the gym
-Stop eating for 2 (or 3/4/5)
-Stop talking about being pregnant

Etc

Etc

The simple things in life, my friends....the simple things....

Baby shower

Here are a few pics from my baby shower that Dani hosted for me when she was in town:




Pregnancy nose?

Open Letter to Gabriel

Gabriel, my little boy,

My purpose for this blog started off as a way to keep our family and friends in the US updated throughout my pregnancy; I hate writing emails. But it turned into so much more for me personally. It has given me a chance to vent, to reach out to other moms, and to put into writing feelings that I have had a hard time expressing verbally. It is my version of a baby book for you, Gabe, and I am going to have it printed every year into a little hardback.

Once you are old enough to read this, you will realize that I have not been secretive of my rollercoaster of emotions over the past 9 months. In a way, I am still in shock. I still wake up to my belly moving and have to remind myself that there is a baby in there. I have passed months of what I now think could be characterized as pregnancy depression where I wasn't always feeling the same things I heard other expectant moms feeling, and subsequently went through feelings of guilt and inadequacy instead. I had very weak moments where I questioned my life, my decision to stay in Italy and have a bi-cultural family, my role as a mother and wife, and my purpose in life in general. My honesty with it to you may be questioned by other people, but I am only able to be honest about it because of the way I feel now.

I cannot wait to meet you. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms, to be your mother, to have a stupid job where my 70,000 dollar masters degree means nothing, just so I can get out early and take you to soccer (or dance!) practice. My feelings have come completely full circle: whereas I once felt scared and depressed and lost and stuck, I now feel so expectant and so blessed and so excited. You are my purpose in life. And I realize it's ok to feel reluctant when big changes are happening, it's human, and probrably more women feel the same things I felt than are willing to admit, but the point is, after feeling that, I now am able to cherish these last few weeks with you in my belly so much more. I know also that the love I feel right now for you, will only grow stronger once I see your sweet face and chubby legs. I so look forward to falling in love with you all over again.

I promise to be as loving and understanding and supportive as my parents have been my whole life for me. I promise to kiss you every night before bed and tell you I love you at least once a day, and never to go to bed mad at you. I promise to support your dreams and activities as you grow and to teach you how to treat people. I promise to always love you and be there for you. I promise that you will have a wonderful father, as he is already a wonderful husband.

And, perhaps above all, I promise to always be honest with you.

Love,
Mom

37 weeks!

I am full term! Thank God!

Yesterday I went to have an exam they do here in Italy where they monitor the baby's heartbeat, fetal movements, and my contractions for a 45 minute period of time. They do this to see the patterns in the heartbeat and fetal movements. It was so peaceful, just me and gabe in the room, that his swishing sounds and heartbeats put me to sleep for a few minutes! But it was incredible. I think I am still in shock that I am creating a living, heart beating human being in my belly. Like, how does that happen? Nature is so incredible. From a few cells, to a 4 kilo baby with lungs, a heart, a brain, in 9 months. Wow.

Everything is normal, and I didn't have any signs of contractions in those 45 minutes. However, this past weekend I am pretty sure I had contractions but they were weak and far between, so my midwife said they were just preparatory contractions, early signs of labor, but that doesn't mean I will necessarily be giving birth anytime soon. I continue to feel a lot of pressure down south and I can feel when he presses his head down. Also, I have had a few sharp pains in my hoo-haa, which my OBGYN said is the beginning of the cervix opening. I have an appointment tomorrow with him and he will check to see if I have dilated at all and just how far down my baby's head has dropped.

I am in full on nesting mode. I have never been so clean and organized in my life! I love it. The last few weeks of being pregnant is like natural adderall!

Stay tuned! We are VERY excited! Will post 37 weeks pics soon!

Who's yo daddy?

36 weeks (plus 1 day)!!

Ah I can't believe we have already arrived at 36 weeks. It's true what everyone says, the last trimester goes by soooo fast. On the one hand, I am so excited to meet Gabriel, but on the other, I am really enjoying sleeping SO much these last few weeks. I went about a week without sleeping more than an hour or two a night because I was just so uncomfortable. Then my mother in law brought me the best sleep aid I have ever come across:


Fresh camomile from nonno Francesco's garden (my grandfather-in-law). I have a cup of this every night before I go to sleep and sleep the entire night, waking up only to relieve my bladder, but doing so in a semi haze and then I pass right out again. I have been sleeping at least 8-10 hours a night AND take a 2-3 hour nap after lunch. I am in heaven!

I was talking to a friend the other day and I told him, I just have nothing interesting to blog anymore. Hopefully this will change once Gabriel arrives, but in the mean time I leave you with my updated pics and my first peice of mom bling:


A friend of ours is a jewelry designer and he designed a necklace like this for his wife (my american-mommy friend) so Gian had him create one for me, as well. I love it!

35 weeks!!!!!!!

NO BELLY BUTTON POP! I think I will be saved from having to see the bottomless pit.

Ah-2 weeks until full term. In Italy, they say you will have the same pregnancy your mom had. So far everything has gone much like my moms, neither of us had morning sickness or vomiting, neither of us gained much weight (mom you gained more weight than me, ha!), and I really feel that the baby is going to come early. I feel so much pressure on my lower body parts. My mom gave birth to both Daniela and myself at 37 weeks, so maybe I am in for a baby in just 2 weeks!

So far, I have gained about 15 pounds and I look at my body and must admit I feel great. I was so worried I would gain a lot of weight, as my body has a tendency to fluctuate in weight gain and loss, but I haven't. I really eat whatever I want, but thankfully I haven't had bad cravings. I eat pasta every day, but cooked at home with fresh, organic, locally grown vegetables and meats, which I think has been my saving grace. In Italy, the addition of growth hormones to animals, fruits, and vegetables is illegal. In America, it's par for the course. And if you want to eat organic in America, you have to pay a heavy price for it (WHOLE FOODS ANYONE??) In Italy, everything is organic by default. During pregnancy, we are already growing so much and have so many extra hormones in us naturally, so my personal opinion is that eating fruits, meats and veggies pumped with growth hormones would only make a woman grow more and bloat more during pregnancy.

Anyways, I am tired, my legs hurt, I am uncomfortable while sleeping, but I have never felt so ready and so happy in my pregnancy. Weekly maternity massages have helped!


And here is the big brother, ROMOLO, ready and waiting for baby Gabri!

Birthing Positions

As I have mentioned before, Gian and I started birthing classes and one of the areas we have been working on with the other moms is the possible birthing positions we can work with in the hospital. I have chosen not to give birth on a bed, but instead like a drunk girl squatting in a gutter: on a hard marble floor, with my husband holding me up for support.

Which coincidentally brings me full circle to when I found out I was pregnant, squatting on a public toilet in a pseudo-Mexican fast food chain restaurant in DC.

This is my favorite:


When I imagined giving birth as a young girl, I never imagined to be pushing a human being out of me as if I were making a bowel movement, but I guess it makes sense if you think about it. Just PUSH!

This too:




I am certainly hoping my husband gets on a yoga birthing ball and plays me a few show tunes.



This is not my husband, nor does he own a stool from the Keebler elf tree house.

34 weeks!

I had my mother in law here this past week and we got everything ready for baby. Clothes and sheets are washed and in plastic ziplock bags, my hospital bag is packed with everything I need and I have finally almost finished remodeling/furnishing the apartment to be baby-ready and mommy-efficient. Once I finish a few more details, I will either take some pictures or make a video of the improvements. We have a small apartment and I have organized ourselves in a way to make it work for our needs.

Our baby is supposedly going to come early! Not too long ago I had a sonogram and the Doctor said that the baby was already dropped, head in position. Now I can FEEL that he has dropped. My tummy looks lower and I can feel his head putting so much pressure against my bladder and other girly parts. Also my mother-in-law is a midwife (not an obstetritian, got the translation wrong) and after painfully poking around in my belly she says she thinks the baby will come between the 37th and 38th week. That would mean I would have the baby in 3 weeks! AH! Who knows if they are right; in the end Gabriel will come when he is ready. I just hope he sticks in there until my mom gets here the last few days of October.

Free health care system

Italy has a "free" health care system. I say "free" because in my pregnancy experience not everything has been free (some exams and blood tests-but still, if you go public the most you would spend on an entire pregnancy couldn't be more than 500 dollars), but it still beats the US.

A friend of a friend recently traveled to the US, and was 2 months pregnant when she left. She got the go-ahead from her general doctor AND her OBGYN to travel and off she went. A few days into her trip, she started hemorrhaging. She is now stuck in America, in a hospital, until she delivers (another 7 months!) with her medical bills piling up, since she has no health insurance in the US. If the situation were reversed, any American (or any nationality) in an emergency would be able to have free health care. But this being said, it does not mean that the Italian public health care system doesn't leave a lot to be desired.

The health care system here is great when you are diagnosed with a serious disease, for instance. You will get all the treatment you need for free. However, true in form as a country full of self-contradiction, screening, yearly check-ups, prevention, and early diagnosis are unheard of here. And almost everyone I have heard of being diagnosed with cancer, died because they discovered it far too late (in fact a quick search by me on the world wide web found that Italy is ranked number 2 in the world for countries with the highest deaths per diagnosis of cancer). The expert that I am, I would deduce that this is at least in some part due to the fact that most middle class Italians wouldn't dream of going through the public system for something as useless as an annual checkup, as it would entail taking a full day off of work, standing in line at the public health care office for possibly hours just to make an appointment with a specialist. Additionally, public health care doctors have a reputation (whether merited or not I really don't know) for being below par when compared to private doctors. However, (another contradiction) public HOSPITALS are regarded as better equipped and medically trained than the better organized and more convenient private hospital 'clinics'.

I don't know why I have decided to blog about this. I guess because I am running around trying to find out how to not pay 200 euros for certain pre-delivery exams and it is driving me crazy. Here, doctor offices do not take blood or cultures or anything else. You have to do everything separately in different offices, and then bring the results to them to be analyzed. How would I do this if I had a job? I would probably just do everything privately in a private hospital, because I wouldn't have a choice. Just taking the days off of work to run through this bureaucratic circus would be the means to justify paying for the convenience of a private hospital.

Bottom line is, thank God I am in a country that at least offers me the option, headache or not, to have free health care.

33 weeks!!!!

33 weeks!

This means I have 49 days until my due date (only 5 percent of women ever deliver on their due date) and 4 weeks until I am full term (baby is fully developed/prepared/ready and could come any day).

I feel pretty ready emotionally. I had a little emotional break down a couple of days ago, and then put my emotions behind me and am looking forward to these last few weeks before baby. It is just so hard going through these changes so far away from home, my family, friends, my language, my culture, my preconceived notions of pregnancy care, etc. I have concluded that the stresses of bi-cultural relationships are only more apparent when preparing for a baby and creating the foundations for a family, making life especially more difficult for the foreigner in the relationship. I miss home more, I miss my family more, etc. Add that to the fact that my hormones are all over the place...it's just been tuff. But I finally feel in a good place and am emotionally ready.

Full steam ahead!!

Belly button

My belly button is about to pop and it's freaking me out!

32 week round up

1. Weird Belly
Throughout my pregnancy, I have definitely noticed that I have a weird shaped belly. People tell me, pictures tell me, my gut instinct tells me. But I always thought, OK, maybe it's just because it is the beginning of the pregnancy, and with time it will fill out and I will have the perfect little round basketball other women have. But no, with only 8 weeks left, I still have a stomach that is clearly divided in two, between my uterus and stomach. Do you see it? It looks like my baby is trying to push himself out through my skin.




2. Hospital

I am giving birth on the Tiber Island in Rome. It is a very small island situated between Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto, and very close to home! The island is very small, and contains the Fate Bene Fratelli hospital, a small church, and a few cafe's. The hospital is recognized as one of, if not the, best in Rome for maternal care and delivery. Historically, the island is associated as a place of healing as many plague and leper victims were quarantined to life on the island. There is a legend which says that after the fall of the hated tyrant Tarquinius Superbus (510 BC), the angry Romans threw his body into the Tiber. His body then settled onto the bottom where dirt and silt accumulated around it and eventually formed Tiber Island. Pretty interesting place to be born!



3. Lamaze

We have started Lamaze and parental preparation classes which we love! It is a time tog et together with other first-time-moms-to-be and ask questions and just feel more relaxed about everything that is coming to us. However, the last lesson was about the first signs of labor, when to go to the hospital, etc, and Gian and I started freaking out during class. I felt like I was having a panic attack and couldn't breathe. Gian kept looking at me and saying "Are you hot? I am so hot. Is it hot in here? I think they have the heat on." We calmed ourselves down, but I have to admit I am still terrified.

4. Sister and brother

My sister and brother-in-law were visiting for a couple of weeks, split between Rome and Avellino. My sister helped me to get ready for the baby and she threw me a wonderful baby shower, of which I have NO PICTURES! We showed Italians, Bulgarians, Mozambicans, and Brits what a baby shower is all about! Here is the new furniture she helped me pick out for baby Gabriel's clothes:






5. Growth sonogram

I scheduled my growth sonogram for when my sister was in town so that she could meet her nephew and godson. Everything went wonderfully and my baby is a big one! At 31 weeks, he was already 4.8 pounds and the doctor predicted a 8.8 baby by my delivery date. His head is already in position down under, pressing every day against my bladder, and since I am so tall, he has enough room to be "laying out like he is sun bathing" which is why I don't have a ball-shaped belly.

After what happened at the last sonogram, I asked my doctor to confirm AGAIN that it is indeed a boy, so she looked around for the penis. As she found it, I looked at Gian who mouthed to me "It's big!" Haha. Such a proud daddy.

I have gained 6 kilos so far, which is equivalent to 13 pounds. I feel really good about that! Hopefully I don't blow up these last few weeks...