Tayler Piccolo 2/24/2014 Section 1 project

Hello, my name is Lenora Borello; I will be born in just around 7 short months, as I am currently still a small embryo growing in my mommys tummy and about to begin the fetal period. I will be born in the cohort of the year 1943. The great depression has just come to an end and World War II will end in a couple years, my parents were lucky enough to dodge the financial hardships during the depression. My dad Frank Borello age 30 and mother Helen Borello age 28 are the first generation from Italy to be born in America. Therefore our family traditions and culture is still very prevalent, my parents are very catholic and can speak Italian as a second language. My father owns a hat factory in New York City; he travels from our house by the commuter train in Brooklyn to his job in the city every day. My mother (like most mothers during this time) stays at home to cook clean and take care of my two older brothers, and soon me too. People in my time still use premature medical devices throughout pregnancy because of the lack of medical knowledge. For instance many women use imported African frogs to determine if they are pregnant or not. Our SES (socio-economic status) is currently in the upper middle class, so my mom is very lucky to have access to a physician. My mom was very happy to find out today from the physician that she is pregnant with me. Although my mother is pleased to be pregnant, pregnancy is considered to be a private matter, and she wont even tell her closest friends and family about the news until I am born. This matter is so private at this time, that my moms physician wont even tell her the many changes that will soon happen to her body. Baby books arent even available or thought of to help pregnant women. Luckily my mom has gone through this twice before and knows to take plenty of rest, and take vitamins to stay healthy. As my mothers pregnancy comes to an end I am continuing to grow at a healthy rate, and am

Tayler Piccolo 2/24/2014 Section 1 project

considered to be at the age of viability when I can live outside my mothers tummy with medical help. Because there is no such thing as an ultrasound, my parents are forced to wait and see if I will be a boy or a girl until birth. My mothers water just broke and it is finally time for me to be born, I cannot wait! Although a majority of births happen at home with help of a midwife, I will be born in a hospital. My mother will have me naturally like most women today. My father is at the hospital with my mother but will soon have to leave her with the professionals, as he is not allowed in the room with my mom. It took a full seven hours of labor, but I am finally here, there is someone cleaning me up and I am crying for my mom. I hear someone say that I am a girl and so far seem healthy because crying is a good sign for normal health. Since the Apgar scale (ch.2, pg. 63; scientific assessment of newborns body functioning) is not yet invented, there isnt much testing to be done, and I am finally put in my mothers arms. We cant leave the hospital for about a week which is the normal amount of time spent in the hospital after birth, but I cannot wait to get home. I am finally home, and I cant help but spend most my time sleeping I dream a lot which makes my eyes flicker, which is called REM sleep (ch.3, pg.93; stage of sleep frequent in newborns having rapid brain waves). As I am growing a little older I try my best to use my fine motor skills by grabbing things in front of me, but I cant seem to grab any objects fully. I am 4 months old now and my favorite thing to do is laugh at the funny faces my brothers make at me, which only makes them do it more. I seem to grow more and more every day, at least thats what my parents say, and I am finally one year old today. My brothers kept making load noises, by popping these huge bubble things (balloons) at my birthday party, I crawled over to one of the bubble things and tried to experiment by doing the same thing they did, but I couldnt make the

Tayler Piccolo 2/24/2014 Section 1 project

load noise. A couple months after my birthday, my parents were packing all of our things in huge boxes, and my brothers kept whining about something called moving. Next thing I knew we were in a car and taking all our things into a new house. We now lived in Westchester County in an even bigger house, we were even lucky enough to be one of the few houses with a phone. The move to the new house made both my parents, especially my mother in an especially happy mood, which made her spend even more time holding and caring for me called Proximal parenting (ch.4, pg.136; caregiving practice involving being physically close to baby). As my second birthday approached, I keep trying to practice walking like everyone else does, but my legs always wobble and I fall if I dont hold onto anything. On the bright side I can now say certain words or holophrases to communicate to my mom and others, things that I want. I kept practicing walking and couple weeks after my second birthday I finally took my first steps.