34 weeks and sausage feet!

33 weeks, 5 days in Bellagio

This week is #34 for me and Bambino. In a month we could be meeting the little one! This past week has been fun, tiring, nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time. Between friends visiting, doctors appointments and dealing with my tired and swollen body, it's been a long but good week.

Dan and Stephna (our friends that live in Amsterdam) came down to Milan for the weekend and we got to spend some time with them and show them our favorite spots. They were only here for a couple of days, so their trip was short, but we were able to pack in some fun stuff. We showed them the bar at Rinascente that overlooks the Duomo, the Brera District, and brought them up to Lake Como. At Lake Como we toured around Bellagio and then went swimming near Villa del Balbianello. It was an awesome day! That night after returning to Milan we brought them to Pizzeria Spontini, and we found a new AMAZING gelato shop near Buzzi with the best pistachio flavor- Massimo del Gelato. It was really fun having them here in Milan and great to catch up with them! They are so much fun to hang out with :)



Dan's wallet- you think he wants to be George Costanza??

there were some strange art pieces in Bellagio
this time around

Remember how three weeks ago I had an ultrasound and they said that Bambino was TOO BIG? At that point he/she was about 5 lbs (way over the 3.5 lb average), so they wanted me to return this week to make sure that Bambino's growth evens out a bit and doesn't keep skyrocketing off the charts. On Tuesday morning I had another ultrasound and it turns out that the growth is starting to balance out. Instead of being over the 95th percentile in every category (most of them were way over at the last appointment), he/she is now closer to 90-95. Bambino is now about 5.9 lbs according to the measurements and everything is healthy. We just have one growing, healthy baby  that takes after dad :) If the growth continues at the same pace, he/she will be around 8-8.5 lbs at birth which is definitely OK with me!! But since Bambino is still bigger than they want him/her to be at this point, they want me to go in again for another ultrasound in three weeks to make sure everything is still ok. That's fine with me! I'll get to see that precious little face again :)



cooling off our feet on a hot day!

Since I've been super healthy throughout my pregnancy, and so has Bambino, they asked me to be a part of a fetal monitoring research study that is happening right now at Buzzi. Since I had time I volunteered. I sat for 40 minutes with a wireless monitor strapped onto my belly, and they just recorded the heart rate during that time. They are doing this to compare healthy women/fetuses to women that have had complications where the baby is not growing properly. It sounds like a really interesting study and I'm curious to see what the findings are.

How is my body holding up? Well... I now officially have "le piedi di salsicce" (sausage feet). The summer heat of over 90 every day is the main culprit in that. I rub them every night and try to put them up as much as possible, as well as exercising to keep up the blood flow, and it just doesn't work. They seriously look like sausages!! Even Josh couldn't believe how swollen they get. I've just come to the realization that they will be this way until Bambino arrives. My hands are starting to get that way too... Most days I can't wear my wedding ring anymore, so I've just put it on my necklace.

Oh the fun of pregnancy!! It's been a pretty amazing thing so far and since the worst thing I can complain about is having slight nausea in the beginning, and now swollen feet, I'm feeling pretty blessed!! I just hope the delivery will go as smoothly.