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Brigitte Aurelia Fletcher was born about 00:45 Wed, March 22 at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome. She is healthy and, as you can see, very cute. She weighed 3.22kg and was 51cm long. We're all very excited and very tired. Corinne should be in the hospital until Friday morning. She also is doing well.
The above photo was taken about an hour after her birth.
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Well it all started last week. Corinne was hoping for the baby to come soon, so on Friday she walked around Rome for almost 4 hours (during which time she felt a few contractions). We went to a St. Patrick's day celebration at the Irish College (where all the Irish seminarians live) that night. Then on Sunday we walked around Santa Marinella for about 2.5 hours.
 walking around town - at the marina
On Monday (March 20 – one week before the due date), Corinne began feeling contractions during mass at 6pm. They continued throughout the night and during the next day.
 Monday night - feeling contractions
We decided to go to Fatebenefratelli hospital. When we went there before to check it out they told us that they are usually full in the maternity ward because everybody wants to have their babies there. Well it is really the coolest hospital in Rome. It is actually clean and modern-looking and is located in the Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island) in the middle of the river in the old part of Rome. We took a chance, and they ended up having room for Corinne.
 The hospital on the Isola Tiberina  Courtyard in the hospital - the pond has goldfish and turtles  The bridge leading to the hospital  waiting around before being admitted - no hard labour yet!
At first, all they did was do routine check-stuff and hook Corinne up to a machine that measures the strength and timing of the contractions, as well as the fetal heart rate. After an hour, the emergency room doctor was going to send us away, but another doctor came down and did a last-minute check and said Corinne needed to stay – which was good, because with the pain of the contractions Corinne was not wanting to go anywhere.
 The view from our birth room
After arriving in her room (number 1!) at about 18:30, the hard labour started. Corinne said all sorts of things that don't need to be written on this website, but let's just say it hurt a lot and she has never experienced such pain in her life. She did not take any pain medication, which sounds noble but might be reconsidered next time.
 The room where Brigitte was born
After a couple hours, the moved us to one of the birth rooms. It overlooks the end of the island and has a spectacular view of the river. Corinne wasn't too interested in the view by this point, however.
 Brigitte in her plastic thingy
For those of you who want all the gory medical details, you can call us and get them by word of mouth. I will skip them here. Anyway, at around 00:45 (i.e., 45 minutes after midnight on Wed March 22), Brigitte Aurelia came sliding out of her mom. One of her parents was crying a bunch. One of the nurses immediately took Brigitte and me to another room where she washed her off and did all the stuff that makes a newborn look less scary. Brigitte got her hand on the rim of one of her latex gloves and wouldn't let go. It was pretty funny.
 In the arms of mom
Eventually, Corinne and I had some time with our new beautiful daughter in the birth room. We called a couple people during this time (if it wasn't you don't feel left out, we hardly called anyone) and Brigitte got to eat with her mouth for the first time.
 My friend Mark brought cigars!  her eyes are currently blue
Then we went back to Corinne's room, and I had to go. It was about 3:30am by this time. I walked over to St. Peter's and took the 5am train back to Santa Marinella, and managed to sleep for about 4 hours before coming back to Rome.
Today (Wed) in the afternoon we had some friends come visit the hospital. My friend Mark brought some cigars, which we smoked outside. It was a fun experience, but didn't really make me want to take up smoking.
 Happy mom!  Brigitte asleep  Yum yum mom!  In this you can see how much she looks like Corinne!  The Fletcher family
“Brigitte” means “resolute strength”. From the very beginning (i.e., 8 months ago) we believed that this child was going to be a strong-willed one. Brigitte (Birgitta) of Sweden is also one of the patron saints of Europe. Her middle name is Aurelia, which means “golden” (Latin origin). As our first born, she really is in first place and is precious to us. She also has golden hair (so far). And, I can't deny that the fact that we live just off of via Aurelia may have had something to do with it, too. In any case, we wanted her to have a name that is connected with Rome.
As for “Brigitte” we pronounce it like “Bridget”, but we chose the former spelling so all the French and German folks can pronounce it their own way too. More pictures and stories will no doubt come. For now, we are just trying to rest and recuperate.
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