My Last Trimester in Rome

NIC TURNS ONE!!! DOB 12/11/05

posted by Tonto @ 12:43 PM 1 comments

posted by Tonto @ 11:46 AM 0 comments

Bouna Notte Roma!!!

Well this is my last email from ROME. This last week has been a lot of tears and lots of pictures. It is back to $3 cappuccinos. We leave tomorrow afternoon. We will be arriving in LA at 3:30 Sunday afternoon the 19th.

To sum up this experience...I received much more than I gave and I am leaving with more than I came with...an 8 lbs baby boy to be exact and some wonderful memories of a wild two months.

I know we all get a lot of emails about stories that happen to other people but I feel obligated to send a final email to the people I know to let you know that good things really do come from bad circumstances and not just to people you hear about but people you actually know.

A lot of things had to go "right" in order for us to leave tomorrow healthy and o.k. So many things had to go right from so many various people and groups. Simple acts that happened to me that let me know everyday everything was going to be o.k.

To name a few,...from the very beginning...the concierge Markus at the Hilton who told the taxi to send me to Gemelli Hospital the best hospital when I went into labor and then later made sure we were o.k. and helped with our stay at the Hilton. The ob/gyn who delivered Nicolas who spoke no English and looked like a grandma herself...stroked my leg after every time I pushed and said "BRAVA BRAVA" so slowly and calmly in the most soothing voice and she was so calm as I cried [not really from pain but shock} and for those thirty minutes that I delivered Nicolas...I really was o.k.

The hospital who did an outstanding job and have become personal friends at this point. The American Women's Group who provided me with company that made a very abnormal experience seem more normal and bearable. My friends at home who sent me emails and talked with me and sent me baby clothes and other stuff...how many people give birth prematurely in a foreign country and yet have their very own NICU nurse as a friend that could explain everything to me...I did. Now how perfect was that?

How did it all come together from different points and places and it all worked out?
So many moments stick out in my mind. I arrived on December 8th and gave birth on December 11th to a 3lb boy and now I go home Febuary 18th with an 8 pounder.

If anything had been different I might not have this perfect result I do now. A lot of ordinary people did some ordinary acts of kindness that led to my perfect result and all I can hope for is that some day I can do some simple act of kindness to someone else that will be part of a culmination of many other ordinary acts of kindness that will lead to someone else's perfect result.

I walked around Rome for the last time tonight as I finished the laundry at the landromat and I realized I am actually going to miss this place. Because in the end, everything went right. Life did this to me but life also took care of me too. I started to think about how I would describe Rome and what it was like but really I cannot. But something Dr. Pappacci said to Nicolas on his last check up this past week sticks with me and may say it best. She took him off to the side while the rest of us took pictures and spoke to him in half English and Italian but I was listening and she said...Nicolas this was your "destino"...to be born in Rome...because Rome is where you find three things...LIFE...FOOD...and FAMILY...and you have been given them all. "Auguri Amore Auguri" [best wishes my love best wishes] you are our family now,

posted by Tonto @ 6:52 AM 0 comments

Countdown to Take Off...Home

Nicolas went to the embassy today...but more on that later. It has been a weird week. Three days so far pent up in an apartment with a new baby in a small place was not that fun...and stressful. You've heard of the mother that knows her baby's cry and sleeps lightly so she can hear her baby?...GOOD! send me her number. This baby must not be mine because that has not happened yet.

Nicolas is so well trained by the nurses he only opens his eyes to eat and sleeps in between...so I sleep in between [easily I might add], but I set an alarm for his bottles but I never hear it and so don't wake up on his regular scheduled time to eat...so basically I am late to my own baby's feedings and he gets kind of mean when you do that...growling and turning red. They just let anyone be parents these days.
But other than that...We have had a whirlwind week so far. Sunday was Italian BBQ day at Dr. DeLuca's house with all the other doctors. One funny moment was when I went into feed Nic in a separate bedroom. It was too cold to have him outside with us on the terrace...I took out a bottle from my bag and sat down to feed him and didn't turn on any lights but I couldn't see very well so I reached over and turned on the light and found the entire room full of people from outside had followed me into the bedroom to watch...and scared me to death. They just all stood around watching him EAT! as if 7 neonatologists had not seen a baby eat before ???

I also met Dr. DeLuca's mother and grandmother. He told me before I came that His mother and grandmother wanted to come meet Nicolas and I thought how fun. He said, "well I told her we would be outside on the terrace grilling and the baby would be with us and all the doctors were coming." She told him "that you and your friends (doctors) do not know what you're doing. I will come to take care of the baby. He told her "we are his doctors. I am his doctor!" She told him..."what do you know about babies? Babies do not go on terraces in winter. I am coming and don't touch the baby."

Well luckily for me she did because other than I had to give him a bottle my work was done.

then on Monday he had his last eye check for his condition which is all looking good...we are free to leave the country!!!

THEN Today we went to the US embassy. That was a hoot. See the attached picture. This is Nicolas' passport picture. Since 9/11 even newborns have to have passports and the pictures have to have the baby's eyes open!!! That is not an easy thing to do when he is fast asleep and held in a wierd position. See the other picture where he looks better. I had the Italian photographer blowing in his face...thinking great...this guy smells like parmesan cheese...but it worked...his eyes opened. BUT WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE IT!!. Remember Nick Nolte when he was picked up for drunk driving and they took his mugshot...I think Nicolas might be on the same stuff Nolte was taking. He looks just like Nick Nolte...totally loaded.

posted by Tonto @ 1:25 PM 0 comments

Down for the Count...

Well I have lost track of the amount of days I have been here but lets just say my original due date is now just 3 weeks away and I am still here and I arrived at the beginning of my last trimester so I have definitely been here a while.

Good news...Nicolas is now 6 lbs. His weight has slowed slightly and they attribute that to his regular and large BUT HEALTHY craps which lower his weight just before they weigh him. The other babies' diapers weigh .30 grams...mine .33 to .36 grams. Yep big ones. He is practically a legend. They say that is all good.

He is up to 6 bottles a day and two feedings through the tube. He is a slow eater, mostly because I have to wake him up to take the bottle and he just doesn't appreciate that very much and it takes him a while to wake up. In general they tell me he never cries just grunts when he doesn't like something and is always smiling at them when they change him and pick him up. Maybe he will stay that way. I think they notice how good he is because he is in between two howlers. A boy and a girl who cry all the time...just want to be picked up.

posted by Tonto @ 2:37 AM 0 comments

Random Thought...

Hey I was in a cafe today...you can take dogs into restaurants here...and this woman was holding her white mini poodle in her arms. I have a white and black mini poodle at home too...who live with my parents. I was staring at this poodle who was so cute and sweet and I was getting homesick again and THEN I thought..."That poodle understands more Italian than I do!"

posted by Tonto @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

All Body Parts Are In!!

Well now that Nicolas' brain looks clear for now. The MRI is still a couple of weeks away. We have been checking the rest of him...heart, lungs, etc...and all looks good...but even better great news...My son grew his breasts in this week and his testicles descended!!! It is a great day. Everything appears to be in...and working.

Since he was born at 29 weeks he didn't have all these parts yet. His chest was as smooth as his back, but right on schedule at 32 weeks the rest of his parts just magically one day came in just like they would in the womb. The doctors confirmed all parts are in...to think the things that make my day now...It's a great day...I just had to tell some one.

posted by Tonto @ 3:51 AM 0 comments