Your first visitors.

Some people simply can't wait to see you as soon and as little as possible, while others prefer to wait a while to give you time to adjust to the outside world. And of course to give the new parents a while to get into the whole parenthood thing!

However, we are always happy to have visitors around, especially your mom who just loves to show you off to everybody!

The Germans are here! Ruth, Inga and Jens.

                                    

Fabio and Kate, with whom you spent New Years Eve, still in your mom's tummy of course!

                                    

Nigel, Julie and Robert who is clinging onto you very tightly!

Sinead and Liz. Here you are sitting on top of one of your future little friends!

Thomas and Monique.

Some of your mom's ex-colleagues from Chassay and Last: Antonella, Giulia and Elena.

Bronte & Sophie and....

..their dad James

Monika & Tim

Claudia, Siorche, Kieron and Aiden somewhere off picture!

Mom and dad with Eleonora and Salvatore.



deborha and james



Ania and Kasca

Your first days at home.

Your first full day is spent with your mom, dad and the whole Foderaro family. Understandably you are the complete centre of attention and countless foto's are taken! It is by and large still a reasonably relaxing day as you are mostly asleep, with the occasional feed and nappy change to keep us busy. Is it the quiet before the storm?

A very proud uncle Matteo could not get enough of his little niece!

Your first family lunch!

Our little family.

You are braving the cold English weather for the first time!

Nonna Mariapia is leaving us for Italy. How will we cope without her wisdom?

Chilling out with Dad!

 

Visit from the midwife. You are 70 grams lighter than at birth, but this is normal at this stage.

I

Speaking to your family in Italy via Skype!

Your first little friend, Slonzino the teddiebear!

Overall we are settling in pretty well with you in our lives. You and your mom are doing fine with the breastfeeding, we've all gone shopping and we've even gone just for a leisurely stroll in the park! Apart from that we've also gone to the pub twice, once to meet up with the NCT group, and once for a drink with Ruth.

We also keep a careful record of all your feeds and nappy changes, in order to see if there is any routine to it, and more importantly, to see if we can alter it somewhat to fit in with what needs to be in our daily lives. Before we know it you are one week old, and dare we say it...things are returning to something resembling normal. It is just that normal is now very, very different!

Bringing Iolanda home.

As nights in hospitals go, yours and your mom's first night in the hospital was not too bad. You shared the room with two other ladies and their babies, and luckily for you, you were the most vocal! Alessandra got some help with breastfeeding as well, which is very useful as it is not always as easy as it seems. Despite this, by the afternoon of the 5th we are all desperate to leave the hospital and be all together at home!

Various checks are done on baby and mom, which thankfully all come back without a problem, so towards late afternoon the midwife come to say that, as long as we promise to get Alessandra some iron tablets as soon as possible, we could take Iolanda home! A taxi is called and the last bits packed in, and before we know it, we are strapping the carseat onto the backseat and we are off!

A short ride later, we arrive in Rathmell Drive and the door with the pink ribbon is opened to welcome Iolanda home for the first time!

After everybody posed for a photo with Iolanda, Alessandra and nonna prepare Iolanda for bed in her own home for the first time!

Your birth.

You, Iolanda vonWielligh, were born on 4 January 2011 at 3.48am at St. Thomas Hospital, right under the shadow of  Big Ben!

Jennifer Terrell, the midwife, had to do the initial  cutting of your umbilical cord in order to hand you over to the midwife who gave you that very first rub with the towel. Heino, however, afterwards cut your cord to size and straight from there you are handed to your mom who put you to her chest. This is the most beautiful moment as the three of us get together for the first time after we've waited for you for so long! We just spend some time admiring you, how cute and perfect you are and it was clear to all of us: all that we went through was perfectly worth it!

Minutes later it becomes clear that there is a problem with your mom's placenta not coming out in the natural way. To aid this process, she is moved to the bed whilst your dad holds on to you  for the first time! Once Alessandra is on the bed, you are taken to her breast for your first ever feed!  

                                                                                                                                                                                    

   

Next on the list is to get you weighed, and you pull the scale down to a very healthy 3.250kg, or 7.15 pounds. With this out of the way it is finally time to get you dressed in your very first set of clothes, given to you by your uncle Matteo!



A cuddle with your nonna.



Unfortunately the situation with the placenta has not improved at all. Jennifer once again calls on another midwife for a second opinion, and the two of them decide to try and pull it out with the umbilical cord. Nothing! The only result is for this midwife to end up with the umbilical cord in her hand as it tears away from the placenta!

This means that your mom has to undergo a small operation to manually remove the placenta. It is a very simple operation, but it requires Alessandra to have an epidural, something that she has worked so hard to avoid! Even more heartbreaking, it means that she has to leave you so soon when the only thing she wants to do is to hold you close to her!

It also leaves Heino and your grandmother behind worrying about all the things that can go wrong. Fortunately nothing goes wrong and about an hour later your mom is brought back from theater, minus the naughty placenta!

Once again the three of us are united. Because of the operation it means that you and your mom have to spend the night in the hospital for observation. Nobody seems to mind though as the most important thing is that we have a beautiful, healthy young baby with mom recovering well!