At St. Thomas' Hospital.

St. Thomas' Hospital has two different sections where childbirth takes place: the Home from Home Centre for low risk births and the Birthing Centre for higher risk births. When we spoke to hospital before we left home we were advised to go to the Birthing Centre, which was very surprising to us as Alessandra's pregnancy has always been classified as low risk. When we arrive there the scene that we most dreaded awaits us: a reception with about 10 pregnant woman and many more companions standing around! These ladies are in various stages of labour from not at all to your mom who has to cling to either Heino or her mum for support every time she has a contraction!

After about 15 minutes of this Heino stops a midwife and asks her if we need to go to another hospital, or if somebody is going to see to Alessandra. Eventually, after yet more dithering about 5 or 6 ladies with their companions are escorted to another part of the hospital, called the Day Assessment centre. This, together with a few whispered conversations finally explain why it all seemed so chaotic. Today is a Bank Holiday and therefore the Day Assessment Centre was closed and all woman in labour were directed to the Birthing Centre. They obviously could not cope with all the people and therefore it was necessary to open the Day Assessment Centre so late in the day!

Luckily for us and especially Mariapia (who earlier regretted not insisting more for private health care for her daughter!) the situation improved dramatically from here on. Alessandra gets assessed and found out that she is 5cm dilated, halfway to the 10cm required for childbirth. This means that we planned it well (no thanks to Heino who would've kept Alessandra at home longer!) coming to the hospital and a few minutes later we are shown to Birthing Suite 24!

For a few seconds poor Alessandra is left on her own to deal with the pain as Heino and Mariapia enjoy the amazing view from the suite! Literally right across the river is the famous Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Beautifully lit up at night, it is a sight that you simply cannot get enough of!
Back to business and we meet our midwife, Jennifer. She looks very young, but is nevertheless very nice and keep on inquiring if we need anything else: tea, pillows, massage oil and anything else that will make the experience more comfortable. She also explains that she will check in every 15 minutes to listen to your heartbeat. With this out of the way, the three of us are left alone for yet a few more pictures!

As Alessandra has been on her feet for most of the last two days, your nonna suggests that Ale tries to get some rest, somehow. This is easier said than done as none of the seating options in the room are comfortable enough. Finally, after scouting around, Heino discovers a hard, upright bench in the Garden Room which turns out to be perfect for Alessandra!

The Garden Room is a peaceful and quiet room on the corner of the hospital, overlooking Big Ben, the London Eye and Westminster Bridge. Here Alessandra finds it comfortable enough to stay seated during the contractions, and even manages to snatch a few moments of sleep between contractions!

Around midnight Jennifer meets us in the room again to assess how much Alessandra is dilated by now. The precious bits of rest that Alessandra got from the seat in the Garden Room has unfortunately meant that the contractions, and therefore the labour process, has slowed down too much! A woman is supposed to dilate by 2cm every hour, however Alessandra has not moved on at all since the last time she was assessed. The only option now, Jennifer explains, is to artificially break the waters!

After a bit of a discussion we all agree that this is the right course of action and a short while later this is done. The result is an almost instantaneous increase in the rate of contractions, to the point where it seems that it is just one long contraction! At one point your mom can clearly feel you dropping into the birth canal, which means that the most difficult part of this journey for you and your mom is here!

A very useful feature of the room is the wall mounted steel bars which your mom is gripping with both hands now as she is trying to push you out of her body. A quick check by Jennifer confirms that Alessandra is dilated by the full 10cm, so things are about to happen!
Your mom decides that the easiest way for her to get you out as quickly as possible, is to give birth on all fours on the floor. Jennifer quickly arranges the mats, towels and other necessities which is just in time as she calls Mariapia and Heino over to have a look at your little head appearing! Mariapia triumphantly declares that you have black hair!

A few pushes later and your full head is born, and then the contractions stop! This is quite a dramatic, dangerous moment as the umbilical cord is also wrapped once around your neck, meaning that the pressure on it causes you to not getting the optimal amount of oxygen. Jennifer keeps on glancing at Big Ben to check that not too much time passes, but it still feels like eternity! Finally, as your little face starts to turn blue, the much awaited contractions come and the rest of your beautiful little body is pushed out!

The drama is not yet over though, as Jennifer is not getting the required immediate response from you. With a quick dart she activates the Emergency Button on the far wall and the next minute the room is flooded with about 10 medical people! The panic is clear to see on all three our faces as the leading midwife grabs you and quickly puts you on the changing table. A quick rub with the towel later and we hear what must be the most beautiful sound in the world: a short, loud cry from the little baby that brings immediate tears to our eyes!



First stage of Labour!

It is the day of your due date and everybody simply can't wait for you to make your appearance! So, to speed up the process, your Nonna Mariapia suggests that we go for a long power walk. One and a half hours later we've walked at quite a brisk pace to Tooting Bec Common and back, but apart from aching feet...nothing!

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully, and later that night your mom and Nonna even make plans to visit the British Museum the next morning! That however, is not going to happen! Early on the morning of  the 2 January 2011 Alessandra starts to experience a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. At first she thinks that it is just a tummy ache as she can't feel any contracting sensations, but that morning your grandma confirms that it is indeed the first contractions!

As they are far apart, we are all still relatively relaxed and even go shopping at the Tesco's in Clapham. Alessandra copes with the pain by simply walking around as much as she can. Towards the evening the contractions get a bit closer and we make the first phone call to the hospital to forewarn them that we might have to come in overnight.

As can be expected it is not a very restful night for us as Alessandra has to wake up every hour or so to do her walk in order to cope with the pain. During the morning Heino and Mariapia start to time and note down the contractions, but they are still far from the prescribed 4-in-10 minutes which would signal for us to go to the hospital!

After a late, light lunch the contractions start to get a little bit closer to each other and around 4pm we phone the hospital again. They advise us to wait another two hours and then to assess the situation before we give them another call. They also ensure us that they have enough space, which was a major worry for us as the last thing you want to happen is to be turned away to a hospital that you don't know at all!

At around 6pm the situation is definitely speeding up and Alessandra, together with her mom decides that it is time to go to the hospital, even if Heino still thinks that we will be send back! A quick phone call to the hospital later and we are waiting for the taxi to arrive. As we settle Alessandra in the back seat, Heino warns the driver that he might hear a scream or two from the back seat. And with that we are on the way to St. Thomas' Hospital!

If everything goes according to plan, next time we all arrive at home will be with you!

Countdown!

Ever since we've reached week 37 of pregnancy, we've been a bit more relaxed about it all as by then, you were fully formed and ready to come out into the big, wide (wild!) world! So, with just over one week to go there is not much else we can do but wait. Luckily for us it is the festive season which means that there is plenty to keep us busy!

Christmas is a fairly simple one with your uncle Matteo that came over from Italy to visit us. He brought us loads of presents, including a very trendy set of baby clothes that he asks if can be the first clothes you wear after your birth! On Christmas eve we have a nice dinner of the biggest Salmon your dad has ever seen in real life, followed by an equally big roast beef lunch on the 25th. Both sets of leftovers will be enough to last us for days!

We've kept in contact with our NCT group, and received the good news that the group's first baby,William, son of Tara and Simon, has been born. According to due dates you should be next, but we all know how unreliable these dates can be!

On 30 December we visit the midwife for the last time before your due date. Due to the holidays, this is not our regular midwife and as she inspects you she finds it difficult to ascertain if you are in the right position or not. This is a bit of an unexpected shock for us, as up to now our midwife has been so convinced that you are indeed in the right position! Thankfully a quick scan can be fitted in the next day and to our big relief they can clearly see that you are well in position for the big day!

On 31 December your nonna Mariapia arrives from Italy. She will be with us in the hospital to welcome you for the first time and it is clear to see that she is going to be one proud grandma!

New Years Eve is spent with Fabio and Kate Mozzicarelli, yet more of Alessandra's Italian friends! Ruth is with us to see in the new year and over a good dinner the usual speculation takes place as to what the new year will hold for us. Well, this is something that not even Ruth's traditional German New Year's Eve future predicting game can accurately do, however, we know that this will be the year that is going to change our lives forever!

Bump's growth phases!

The relationship that a woman has with her body during pregnancy is, especially for men, a strange one! At first she is inspecting on a daily basis if she can notice that she is "showing". At this stage there can be a certain pride in how long she can go without showing any difference.  Once she can notice a definite swelling, she can be very surprised that no one around her notice anything, sometimes refusing to acknowledge how difficult it is for other people to comment on a woman's shape, especially if they don't know she is pregnant!
During the middle phases there are the moments of anxiety brought on by fears that the bump is too small, and that baby is not growing enough. Finally, towards the end she can't stop talking about how enormous this ball is that she is carrying around, and how on earth is that supposed to come out!?

Below are the different phases through which Baby Bump Iolanda has grown, culminating in the last picture taken the day before she was born.

11 September 2010

15 October 2010

8 November 2010

11 December 2010

3 January 2011

Mom's last day of work.

It is Friday 17 December 2010, two weeks before your due date and your mom is still hard at work... for one more day! Throughout her pregnancy she has been really well and did not even take one day off, now however, it is time for her to stop working and focus all her energy towards you and your imminent arrival!

Alessandra works as a Project Manager at the Queen Mary University of London and all her colleagues organized a nice afternoon tea with cakes to say a final goodbye to her. A big banner above the doorway wishes her good luck for the big, beautiful adventure that is awaiting her!

She is planning to stay on maternity for 9 months and to return around September 2011, but it will be as a very different person, as a mother first and foremost with very different priorities. For now though, the end of her working time is signalling that your birth is just around the corner, which mean that all her time and energy will now be devoted to you, and you alone!

Your room.

Your room will be the smallest of the house but then again, you will be the smallest little person in the house, so this makes perfect sense! Ruth is one of your mom's oldest friends here in London (they met whilst working at the Frederick Gibberd's Architectural Partnership) and is very good at painting. So, we ask her if she would be interested in decorating one of the walls of your little room, and she happily accepted.



The result, after three weekends of painting, is great! The scene is dominated by a big tree with lots of little animals around it and on the hills. In the distance is a very nice little (German looking) village that makes you wish that you can live there!

Next on the list is the curtain, which is made by Mia (girlfriend of Heino's friend Laurence) and it compliments the room very well as it adds more colour and light to the room.
A final touch is a colourful tapestry that your Nonna Mariapia brought for you from Guatemala, and  a set of hanging ladybirds for good luck from Marzia and Federico.

All in all we think this little room is now perfect, all it needs is you to come and enjoy it!

Getting Ready.

As with most things that you haven't done before, getting ready for a baby is quite tricky as you can't really grasp the magnitude of what is about to happen! It is therefore quite late in the day when we finally get to purchasing all the little things that will be necessary to welcome you into our lives!

One of the biggest expenditures, and most important purchases, is the pram/buggy/travel system that will be needed to transport the most precious of cargo's around in! Luckily for us, Heino's doubles tennis partner, James Wright and his wife Sue-Ellen, offered their second hand Bugaboo buggy and changing table to us for a very reasonable price. This solved the problem of having to choose one out of the multitude of options available, plus we know it works as it has been tested out for us!

For the rest of the things we visit the Colliers Wood shopping centre, where we get a very nice Moses Basket (with the Jungle Family theme to match your room!) from Mothercare, along with a little mattress for your changing table and a baby monitor. From M&S we also buy one set of new born clothes as well as a little Snow Suit. We know we already got some clothes for you from our friends, and probably will get loads more, but with this (and your first pack of nappies!) we finally feel that we are now ready if you make a very early appearance!

One last visit to Argos give us a nice chest of drawers with round feet and round handles, which according to your mom suits a baby room, to store all your little things in and all that remains now is to go home and put up our very first Christmas tree in our new house!