Welcome to the world, now sign this

· by · in Life in Italy. ·

I come bearing amazing news; My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last week. Beatrice, Bee for short, is just perfect and we’re both so happy.

Bee's feet

Her introduction to the world was, of course, typically Italian; Late, noisy, stressful (for me at least) and full of unnecessary administration.

In fact, before Bee had even fully joined us, as my wife lay screaming on the delivery table, she completed her first form – a kind of pre-pre-declaration of birth. Hearing my wife breathlessly shout “dual…arrgghh… citizenship!” as I struggled to understand the seemingly never-ending list of questions coming my way is a memory that will stay with me forever.

She may only be five days old and 50cm tall, but already she has a Codice Fiscale, a medical card and a full medical history. She’s official.

Bee in hospital

In other news, we might have finally found a builder and my Italian has improved vastly (it’s amazing what you can do when your wife and newborn baby are depending on you…), but none of that matters right now. We’re hunkered down, learning the ropes, grabbing sleep whenever we can and getting to know beautiful little Bee.

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81 responses to “Welcome to the world, now sign this”

  2. Dear Friends, my heart is exploding with joy for you. Now you had better get her registered with your doctor, USLA, local school and cafe bar, in no particular order. Bravi xx

      • Yeah, we’ve managed to pay some that way. Others, we’ve been less successful with. I must say, the feeling of achievement when you manage to pay a bill in just a couple of minutes as opposed to it taking a whole afternoon is quite overwhelming!! ;-)

  4. Hi Rich,

    I don’t know if this will get t to you but if it does, congratulations from all of us (especially to the two girls!!!)

    Al, Lydia and Isla x

    On 20 Jan 2014, at 16:34, Living in the Langhe – a new life in Piemonte, Italy wrote:

    > >

  6. Yay!!! Welcome Bee ( love the name). Fantastic news, she is beautiful, enjoy just staring at her. I hope your wife is feeling a little more normal after giving birth.
    Fabulous!

  14. What wonderful news, and congratulations to you all!!!! I can see many years’ worth of wonderful Bee stories as she grows up “dual…arrgghh… citizenship!” — helping you in all your DIY projects. And how does Otto feel about all this excitement?????

      • You’ll be fine, you’ll adjust to the sleep deprivation. It doesn’t last too long… just until your last child hits the age of five. Then you get to rediscover full nights of sleep, it’s fabulous 😉 Just kidding (well, maybe not. French children are programmed to sleep all night when they come out the maternity ward, but English genes got the better of my kids). Just make sure don’t put the baby in the fridge and the cornflakes in the cot.

  18. Auguri!! Congratulations!! May your days be filled with laughter, love and learning to see the world afresh through your daughter’s eyes! And good luck on the sleep thing!!!!! Lizzie

    • Thanks PN and Mrs Sensible! I think Mrs Sensible might regret that offer though… but even if we don’t leave her with you, we would definitely like to pop by some time and introduce her to you!

  23. Congratulations! Great news!

    Although wow, dual arrrrrrgh citizenship – they could pick their moments! I do remember someone coming in to ask what sort of sandwiches I’d like and getting a similar response and she sort of realised that now was not a good time (and I never did see those sandwiches) but at least food is a multiple-times-a-day requirement, whereas citizenship is surely… well I mean a time limit, yes, but…??

    Anyway. Sounds like everyone’s doing very well (including your Italian) 🙂

    • Thanks! I love the idea of them offering you sandwiches 🙂 I think this form had to be completed by the time of the birth, but I guess they didn’t want to complete it to soon… timing is everything 😉 It was bizarre though, answering all these questions – our places of birth, addresses, residency, citizenship – with our new baby just minutes away!

      Everyone is doing really well, thank you!

      • Who knows… at the end they filled in the time of birth, signed it and stamped it, so I guess they wanted everything else filled in first. I guess it’s a kind of proof that the baby was actually born. I suppose they don’t want to do it too early in case, as you say, something goes wrong, but if they do it too late, there is no document to prove that the baby exists. And being Italy, there has to be a document! 😉

      • It’s just… these sorts of documents were filled out at least 24hrs AFTER the birth in both Singapore and Australia, so I’m wondering what’s so urgent in Italy that they should bother anybody mid-contraction? Anyway. I’m sure they have their bureaucratic reasons – it’s just amusing.

        I remember ordering the chicken sandwich, on wholemeal bread. I’m still a little miffed they didn’t bring it, given how much effort went in to the order.

      • Ha ha… I can’t believe you remember what you chose! 🙂 Yeah, I can’t imagine they do that in the UK either, but I’m sure they must have their reasons. We were o caught up in the moment that we didn’t really see the absurdity of it at the time, but looking back, it’s crazy!

  28. Well for once, italian bureaucracy is ahead of themselves instead of behind. Congratulations to your new baby girl. Will you be placing a large pink ribbon outside to announce Bee’s entrance into the world?

    • Yeah, it’s true, it’s good to see isn’t it. She had a Codice Fiscale before she was even born! We haven’t gone down the pink ribbon route, but everyone else in the hospital did.

    • Thank you! It’s all going really well so far. She’s going pretty easy on us I think. She sleeps amazingly well and puts up with being dragged around Northern Italy all the time without making a fuss.

  33. Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve visited this blog before but after
    browsing through many of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
    Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I came across it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back often!

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