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...