12:00pm Sandwiches in the corner bar. (If you ever have to eat at HSR, the sannies there are actually better than the bar in the main hall-i mean like WAYYYY better).3:00 pm Shopping at UNES next door. The cashier lady sort of made fun of me wobbling around with the big belly still. Man if she thinks I've been wobbling around FOREVER, just think how I feel!
3:30 pm come home, unload, get ready to head back out to the fruit/veg vendor. We didn't make it though because during the mandatory pit stop before exiting, I once again thought my water broke-this time fo reals!
3:45 pm call Max's cell like 8 times, of course he doesn't answer-desperately search the house for his office number. (Mom goes off to get Sophia from school. Thank god she is here!)
4:00 pm Crap! Crap! Starting to panic (if he is recording, it'll be 10 mins before he calls back, it's now starting rush hour so finding a taxi could take a while, then he's got to get over here from the other side of the city)-breath! think! okay let's see I think he sent the number by sms, it's not in message box, perhaps I was organized and already saved it into contacts?? YES! found it! Call office, Max leaves work a few minutes early. Now that that problem is resolved, I start worrying that the cuttlefish i defrosted will go bad, so I start making the sauce.
5:00ish Max arriving home from work.
I realized that there are no fotos of my mom and me with the belly, so before heading out the door we snap some.
All of us.6:00ish We head to the hospital. There is one girl in front of us.
7:00ish We head back home (so does that other girl)-TMI ahead-don't read if you don't want to know...after some checking/poking/prodding, it's determined that my water didnt actually break it's just very liquidy mucus (there's snot down there? who knew!). I might now give birth anytime between now and next week. We walk to car and I start to feel contractions-but hey, what can I do-they'll just send us back home or make us wait in the hallway on the uncomfortable chairs.
7:30 pm Head to McD's drive thru bcuz i am starving and once the real contractions I know I won't be able to eat. plus Max won't be able to eat either. Oh Crap, oh crap-real contractions while stuck un drive thru line?????
8:00 pm shove food in mouth in between contractions, guess i was wrong-apparently I can eat. contractions are getting stronger, faster, longer, closer very quickly...must hold...out...as...long..as...pos...sible. don't wanna...be ....turned...away...again.
??? pm finally decide to head to hospital. (plus my mom said she waited too long with me and they woukdn't give her an epidural/one of my friends gave birth in the car while her husband ran in to get the wheelchair). omg - every speedbump and pothole just went up 1000 times on the richter scale!
10 ish hey that same girl is here. This time they admit me and bring me into a nice soothing green colored room. I actually had to ask if that's where I was giving birth-(the last hospital's delivery room looked like something out of a mad scientists lab with rubber aprons on the dingy whites walls with grey stains over the radiators, the bed was in the center of the octogonal room and what seemed like dozens of people were milling in and out). Then I realized I was on a bed-so I asked if that's how I was going to give birth or were they gonna make me stand up (I don't remember if you remember last time, but I sure as heck do! When they told me to stand up, I thought that they were kidding, then a big 'catcher's mitt'-like nest and a mirror were placed under me and well you know the rest...). Let's just say it was a TOTALLY different experience this time, however...we can never have a totally normal uneventful experience because...
12:22 am Ploof: out popped Vivienne Mei Parisi (well actually we were still arguing about the spelling as I was being wheeled to the...)
...Hallway. (where the girl I kept seeing, who I now know is named Elena, was also being 'stored.') The maternity ward is being remodeled, so all the beds on the 7th floor are now on the 6th floor. However...apparently there was a new moon or something because there was an extreme overflow of women giving birth. We later learned that Elena and I were the last 2 to be taken in that night, but even before we got there, if women were not dilated enough, they were turned away and told to go to other hospitals (the other hospitals were also very full- there was even one woman that was already turned away from one hospital and then got turned away from San Raffaele )- so don't think i wasn't counting my blessings on the timing of our arrival! I just like to complain and tell stories of our strange, non-American experiences here abroad.
So we were put on gurneys and put in the middle of the hallways.Since they weren't taking in any more births, we were eventually 'upgraded' and wheeled into...
...an unused delivery room.see the little step ladder-try getting up and down that gurney after having just squeezed out a bowling ball (with the iv still attached), good thing the ER is just straight down 7 floors, I nearly killed myself every time I had to pee. And I had it good, poor Elena (destiny is funny, after that first chance meeting in the outer waiting area, we were practically inseperable) had a lower step ladder, but then they put up the side of the gurney and she couldn't get down anyways). we don't get to use the bed in the room b/c it needed to be ready in case there an emergency and the room was needed, they could just wheel us out and wahlah.
What the heck is Max all tired for? I did all the work! Ha! Seriously, he did a great job (keeping calm this time) and chauffering me back and forth to HSR with me shouting WATCH THE BUMPS AND POTHOLES!
And here is our little Vivienne Mei, better know as Trilli-Jingle Bells Parisi if you are talking about her in front of Sophia. Eventually Diego (Elenas husband) and Max went home and we were left to 'rest' in the delivery room. By the time morning came- new arrivals came too...and so did the moaning and screams and all the usual sounds from the delivery rooms. There was one poor lady who didn't understand Italian and they couldn't instruct her (altho, her husband was there, but they were arabic so I don't know if he entered the room) and her screams went on for what seemed like hours! I was really glad that all this happened AFTER Vivienne was delivered, because I despite the empathy I for the women I had by that time, screams at any time are not exactly soothing.BTW breakfast came at around 8am that morning, it was a choice of a) warm milk, warm milk with orzo or tea and 2 packets of melba toast (with 2 pieces of bread each inside). Not too filling after having given birth but, I guess I could hold out until lunch. Jokingly I asked Max to bring briosche from the bar downstairs, cuz they have some rockin stuff. He actually did, thank god because they sort of forgot to bring us lunch...it was delivered around 2. but then we had to feed the babies and tests to do etc etc, so we ate very late. luckily I was near fainting because it was horrible:
I'm not even sure what type of beef jerky, er i mean meat that is supposed to be, but I was gnawing on it like the family from The Road or the Stand, I was so hooongray!here are some extra fun facts:
1) you are not supplied with hospital gowns, you must bring your own, plus something to change in after. laundry must be done at home (remember we don't have dryers here, so you had better not be like me and have a good supply of extra stuff).
2). husbands can stay with you the whole time after delivery, but apparently not if you are put on hold in the delivery room-then they kick the husbands out. There was no room for them to sit or stand anyways.
3). water is not supplied for you, it is byob.
4). you must also bring your own hand soap/bidet soap/hand towels/bidet towels/sanitary pads.
5). every body brings extra food because hospital food is not enough.
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