The Allisons

I'm 36 weeks today! My check up went well. The baby is head down, but still pretty far up there, so the Dr. didn't seem to think I would be delivering anytime soon. In a way, that might be a good thing.

We were informed a couple of days ago that the labor and delivery ward at the hospital on base is closed due to some sterilization and gas ventilation problems. They can still do deliveries, but since every delivery has the potential for problems and an emergency C-section, they cannot risk for ANY deliveries to take place there. They have put in an emergency repair order, but it seems like everything in Italy takes 10 times longer than expected. They say it will be down from a week to indefinitely. So, all deliveries will occur in the Italian hospital in Pordenone (the nearest town about 10 min south of Aviano). I would much rather deliver in an American hospital with American doctors, but since the situation is out of my control, I've decided not to stress about it. Who knows? Perhaps the Aviano hospital will be up and running by the time the baby decides to come out.

In order to at least have to option for an epidural I had to have blood drawn today and an EKG. Then I will meet with an Italian anesthesiologist sometime in the next 2 weeks for a consultation. If for whatever reason the baby comes before the consultation, I'll have to deliver with no pain meds.

I have full confidence in the Italian doctors and nurses and complete faith in the Italian health care system. My concerns are mostly about how "comfortable" it will be; i.e. the language barrier (although we are supposed to have a translator there for some of the time and when I'm not trying to push a baby out, I'll probably be fine with the Italian I know), we have to bring our own toiletries, Mike will be able to stay through the delivery, but after that he can only come during visiting hours, I'll have a roommate, no DVD player, no video recording, the list goes on...

We're supposed to go down for a tour of the facilities on Tuesday so I think that will alleviate many of my fears. I think that's all the info I have to update you to this point. Hopefully my next blog will say "Aviano's open again!!".