My Italian, home, water, free birth Part 2

 Later that morning, around 6:45am, my husband departed with our older son to get blood work done at the metabolic unit at the hospital in Padova. We had also taken a sample of our newborn son’s blood for them to examine for genetic conditions. At 7am our translator enthusiastically called. “I just saw the missed calls! Oh my, is it time!? I am so excited! I will call the midwife!” I laughed and let her know that she had already missed all of the action. The baby arrived, the midwives had come and gone, and we had gotten sleep. She was surprised that it had happened so quickly, and profusely apologized for missing it. She came to visit me a few hours later and meet the new guy.

Our landlady from upstairs also came down to visit as she often does, and I opened our front door, greeting her with a new baby. She was shocked as I told her the story of his arrival in their bathtub over the night. Around 9 am some of my girlfriends came to visit with their little ones and all of our kids had a mini play date at my house. This is another thing that would not have been able to happen in the hospital. I would have been stuck there for two days and my Italian friends would have been unable to get onto the base and my girlfriends with small children would have been unable to visit, as children are not allowed in the recovery rooms. I recalled my first son’s birth. My husband spent most of the time attempting to unpack our newly arrived household goods, and I had one visitor. I had no one to show off the baby to, and it was quite lonely and dull in the hospital. There was also no Internet available and I was unable to even let the family know that he had arrived. Here at home we had Internet and were able to video chat or call most of our family that same day. Even the post birth situation was a vast improvement at home from my time in the hospital.

Later that night our sweet friends snuck over to decorate our fence line and car, announcing to all that passed by that our new son had arrived! It is the custom here in Italy to place ribbons on the fences and houses for occasions like this. There are many colors of ribbons, but I don’t know what they all signify, just that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. I am quite fond of this tradition and the Italian's exuberant celebration of life.

 

A few days later my good friend and neighbor took some family and newborn photos for us. She is so talented and I love the way they turned out!

Most people desire to have their newborn's photos taken when they are sleeping so they can pose them easier, however I am partial to the open eyes as it shows glimpses of their personality more than a sleeping baby. 

   

 

Just to show you how talented she is, let me tell you that this photo, never actually happened! We were unable to get both children to cooperate for a joint photo. So she took one of each time they were cooperative, and photoshopped them together so I could get a brother/sibling photo. ^_^