My Pregnancy Journey - Part I

Every pregnancy is a journey and has a story of it's own and a first time pregnancy comes with an added touch of anticipation and excitement of something never experienced before.  

Luca and I discovered that we were expecting our first child right before Halloween. I went to the closest grocery store to buy my second pregnancy test. I was nervous and excited. The first time I went to buy a pregnancy test I bought a 2-pack and didn't looking at the packaging carefully. It was a huge disappointment when I got home and went to take the test and realized that it had already been opened and one of the tests had been stolen. So the second time I double-checked the packaging. 

It was a surreal feeling taking the test and hoping for a positive result and then seeing those two lines slowly appear. After the first test being negative I had just expected that also the second one would be too. 

At a halloween party after discovering a little baby
was growing inside 

So after rejoicing in the good news we had to figure out how to proceed. What do we need to do? Who do we need to call? What appointments need to be made?

I ended up calling a well known gynecologist in Bologna that I had seen before and who speaks English.  I told the secretary that I had just taken a pregnancy test that came up positive and that I'd like to be followed by this gynecologist. About a week later we went in for the first appointment. She did an ultrasound to verify that I was actually indeed pregnant with an expected July 8th due date. 

In November and December I had about 5 appointments. All the appointments seemed a little unnecessary, but we felt like we were being followed well with so many different blood tests to be taken, ultrasounds at every appointment, and a bi-test done to rule out any pathologies. I was feeling great with no morning sickness and just feeling a little more tired than usual. 

Upon coming back from the States after the Christmas holiday, in the taxi on my way home from the airport I started to throw up. I didn't stop throwing up for over 24 hours. After not being able to keep any food or water down I went to the emergency room. I stayed in the hospital for 2 days. It was quite strange since I hadn't suffered any morning sickness and the doctors never said what it was. So we don't know if it was a case of hyperemesis gravidum or if it was some bug I caught while traveling. But, we did find out that baby was a little baby boy!

I was already thinking about where I would want to give birth. I knew I wanted the least medicated labour possible and so I was interested in the birthing center in Bologna, Il Nido.  Luca and I went to an informational meeting in February and liked what we heard and saw. We also discovered that I wasn't being as closely followed by my gynecologist as we had thought. Frustrated with the time and money we had spent with the private gyno and the lack of care, we decided to continue my pregnancy with Il Nido and one of their obstetricians. 

I went to another private clinic to have the "big" second trimester morphology ultrasound. It took almost 3 hours to get all the measurements taken and I had to go the bathroom at least 3 times to keep my bladder empty during the ultrasound. We discovered that baby was growing well and was absolutely perfect. He already had longer than average legs - genes from his tall mommy and daddy. We were a little bummed when we didn't get a nice look at his face since he was turned the wrong direction and refused to move. When I had the third trimester ultrasound, again, baby refused to show his face. 

We were getting anxious for this little boys birth!