The pain

I am convinced that breastfeeding is one of the best gifts you can give to your child. This gift, however, sometimes comes at a high price for the mother. Because, whereas breastfeeding is thought to be something very instinctive and natural, more often than not it it something that one needs to learn. Not only can it be very painful in the beginning, I find that there is a lack of supportive doctors for those who want to overcome those pains and continue breastfeeding. Switching to bottle-feeding is very often seen as the only solution to breastfeeding pains. I agree that sometimes it is better to quit. If the pain is so strong that feeding becomes pure torture and you literally become afraid of your own baby, then it is maybe better to stop. However, I also think that with the proper support and advice you can get rid of the pains. Breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt.

Anyway, because I suffered a lot in the beginning with Auro, I was prepared to go through it again with Tosca. And indeed, after about 6 weeks of sore and cracked nipples (toe-curling pain!), it finally seemed to get better. Around Easter, however, I again started to have a burning pain during the feedings (only on one side) and shots of pain in my breast in between the feedings. It hurt so much that I had to take paracetamol to find some relief and I decided to seek 'professional' help. We first went to the consultorio (a place where you can go with all your child-raising questions, on given days they also provide free consults with pediatricians, obstetricians or gynecologists ) where an obstetrician looked at my breast and told me I did not have mastitis (inflammation of the breast). She told me to leave my breast uncovered as often as possible. This did help with the cracked nipples, but the deep breast pains after the feedings remained.

I then looked for a La Leche League group in Genoa. By this time we suspected thrush (a yeast infection) to be the culprit of my pains and the La Leche League people agreed. They told me to have a doctor prescribe me some medicine. 

We then went to see a friend of a friend, who is a gynecologist at the hospital where I gave birth. Grateful as I am for her seeing us during her lunch break, she could not help me much and could not give me any medicine. She told us to have it looked at by a pediatrician. 

In the meanwhile we had found out that doctors used to prescribe gentian violet for thrush and that very often solves the problem. More importantly, we found out that you could get it at the pharmacy without prescription. Finally something I could try! Since they didn't have it in stock, we ordered it at the pharmacy. 

Then, we went to see our family doctor. She must be the most ignorant doctor there is, because first she said that one can not have a fungal infection on the nipple. She then continued by saying that I needed to take antibiotics (which only a gynecologist can prescribe) to treat the thrush (antibiotics can make a yeast infection worse!) and stop breastfeeding right away. When I uttered that there are antibiotics that one can use during breastfeeding, she admitted that that was also a possibility, but more importantly that I should go see my gynecologist. 

At this point I started loosing my patience. I decided to give myself until the end of the month to fix this problem or I would stop breastfeeding.

Anyway, after the completely useless visit to our family doctor, we then tried with the pediatrician. Surprise, surprise: he had a look and decided it wasn't mastitis. He then said that we'd better go to the gynecologist.

Exactly one week ago, I got my hand on a bottle of gentian violet and I started using it in the evenings. Messy as it is (it stains the nipple purple and everything that comes in contact with it... after a feeding Tosca is left with a purple mouth, chin and cheeks), it did seem to help. The pain became bearable and some feedings were actually pleasant.
 Then, we did what we should have done from the very beginning: we went to the maternity department in the hospital where Tosca was born and asked to see the pediatrician there. We had to wait a little, but it was worth it. She agreed that it might be thrush, but that she couldn't be sure because there are no visible symptoms. The pains I described to her (she actually wanted to know about them!) did seem to point in the direction of a yeast infection. She prescribed Daktarin, a cream that I have been using for 2 days now. I can't really say whether it is getting better or not, but it seems to be better. It definitely didn't get worse. I still have some pain in between the feedings, but a lot less than before.I really hope I can start enjoying feeding my baby soon!

Topo Gigio

It's amazing how children copy everything we do. Auro, for example, watches me breastfeed Tosca every day and, doing so, he also sees me in a lot of pain from time to time (I will 'dedicate' another post to that later). One day, Auro asked me to look at him because he was breastfeeding 'Topo Gigio' (a character from a well-known Italian animation). At first I thought I had misunderstood somehow, but then I heard him making suckling sounds and so I looked. He had his hand close to his nipple and in it he was holding something what I can only assume to be an invisible Topo Gigio. He then pointed to his left nipple saying that it was painful from that side, but that the other side was ok. (I have a painful right breast, so that becomes the left one for Auro) Despite all the pain, however, he stubbornly continues to feed his Topo Gigio every now and then. Believe it or not, but the other day I noticed that after a feeding he even burps 'his baby'!!

Flowers!!

Happy Mother's Day! 

I hope nobody was forgotten. My boys remembered ;-)

La madrina

After Tosca's godfather's visit some weeks ago, also her 'madrina' came to Italy to meet her godchild. Tosca, who had just struggled through a somewhat difficult couple of weeks (lots of crying and many nearly-sleepless nights) was a perfect hostess and greeted Wendy and Olaf with lots of beautiful baby-smiles. Also Auro, even though he was a bit confused about our guests' names, was on his best behavior and not only showed them around the house, but also demonstrated every toy he had in his room ;-)

On Saturday, we went for a hike in Cinque Terre, five villages on the Ligurian coast that are so beautiful that even UNESCO made them into a World Heritage Site. Having to carry a 2 year old and a baby along, we only hiked from Corniglia to Vernazza, but it was more than worth it!

Starting point: Corniglia

Leaving Corniglia behind us

Arriving at Vernazza

On demand

The other day, I was told that there were so few photos of Tosca on the blog and that when Auro was born I was posting so many. Don't worry: I am taking photos of Tosca as well! Taking care of 2 kids, however, keeps me quite busy and I just don't seem to find the time to post any of them. Anyway, on general demand, here are some photos taken in the last 2 weeks...

Tosca, nearly one month old, drunk on milk (26 March)

Lunch at home with our guests from Japan (Tosca was asleep) (29 March)

Another relaxing moment on the sofa after one (of the many) feedings (1 April)

On Sunday we drove up to the Praglia Planes (15 minutes from the house), where Auro tired himself...

... and Tosca drank milk and napped under a tree! (2 April)

Yesterday, Auro smelled all the flowers in the garden...

until his nose was yellow! (5 April)

This was taken this morning before going to the supermarket

A proud big brother with his baby sister (even if she wakes him up several times during the night with her persistent crying) ... by the way, if anyone knows how to turn this photo... let me know, because I have no idea how to do it ;-)

Ginevra

This morning, Lara, Remo's sister, (finally) gave birth to a little baby girl. We welcome Ginevra (Italian version of the Celtic name Guinevere) and congratulate Lara on becoming a 'mamma'. Congratulations also to myself, since I am now officially a 'zia' (Italian for 'aunt'). Hurray for all of us!!

Visitors

From the moment Tosca was born, we have had some visitors. Some visited us in the hospital, others drove/flew all the way to our house in Ceranesi. Some stayed for 1 week, others just for some hours. But they all came to see our little girl and they all came bearing gifts ;-) A big thank you to all of them!!!

The one who was waiting the most for Tosca to arrive was Auro. He helped me prepare all the baby clothes and tested some of the other baby things to make sure they were comfortable enough ;-)

After his first visit to the hospital, Auro had already memorized the way to my room. Here you see him caressing his little sister for the first time. Also now he still uses every opportunity he gets to touch her and give her many (wet) kisses!

The first one to arrive at the hospital was Patrizia (the cousin of Remo's mother). She was so fast that she actually visited me an hour after I had given birth and I was still in the delivery room! (This photo is taken in the house, not in the delivery room!)

Second one to arrive at 'the scene' was Remo's mother. Tosca is her 2nd grandchild and she is currently waiting for the 3rd one to be born (Remo's sister)!

Remo's mother had just left (she stayed with us for a week and helped us out with cooking, cleaning and unpacking some of the boxes) and we had our first visitors from Belgium: my father and my aunt! They also stayed with us for about one week and besides putting up with my postnatal tiredness and mood swings, they helped a lot in improving/cleaning the house.

Tosca sleeping through our lunch in a restaurant close to the house.

The (for the moment) last visitors arrived from Belgium last Saturday and stayed only for 1 afternoon! My cousin Kim, who is the proud 'padrino' of Tosca, flew to Italy just to meet his godchild! A short, but very meaningful visit!

Tosca

On Sunday (the 27th of February) morning (09:29 to be exact), our daughter Tosca was born in Giannina Gaslini Hospital in Genoa. The contractions started around 3:30 in the morning (our 3rd night in our new house) and at 7 we decided to wake up Auro. We arrived at the hospital by 8 and only one hour and a half of excruciating pain later (during the weekend there are no anesthesiologists present to administer epidural anesthesia) Tosca was caught in the hands of the obstetrician on call Elisa. Tosca came out healthy and cried immediately. She was measured to be 50cm long and weighed 3130 grams (which, besides it being also the postal code of Begijnendijk, the village where I grew up, is also the exact same number of Auro's birth weight!).

Final countdown

Seventeen days left... that is what the baby ticker on this blog says today. A little longer than 2 weeks before the baby is due (that is if she decides to come out around that date... Auro was born 5 days before his due date). That is not much longer. On the one hand, that makes me happy, because I can't wait to loose the extra weight I've been carrying around and I definitely won't miss the back ache and the 'lightly' swollen legs by the evening. And of course I can hardly wait to hold my baby in my arms!

On the other hand, however, 17 days is a very short time to do all the things we still would like to do before our baby girl arrives. All the baby clothes are washed, there's a cradle, a baby bath tub and even a car seat waiting for her, but... we still need to move everything to our new house! As probably only some of you know, we have recently bought a house just outside the city of Genoa. We started to look for a house last summer and in July we found one that we liked. A funny anecdote is that on the day we saw the house for the first time, I wasn't feeling too well. I was nauseous and dizzy and had no idea what was wrong. It was only a little later that I found out that I was pregnant! Because there were a lot of complications with the purchase of the house (that is also the reason why I have never mentioned it here), I still can't decide whether I should see the fact that my morning sickness started exactly on that day as an auspicious sign or not. Anyway, the deal was finally finalized in December and the previous owners moved out at the end of January. 

As, apparently, is rather normal in Italy, the previous owners stripped the house of virtually everything (from thermostats and light switches to the toilet seat!), so we have a lot of preparing to do before we can actually move in. The biggest thing so far was finding an affordable kitchen. While I'm writing this, Remo is unloading the truck that delivered the kitchen and has started  painting the walls of the room in which the kitchen should be installed this weekend.Since yesterday we were finally connected to the gas network (and therefor now have a working heating system). The plumber installed the water outlets to connect the washing machine. Our bed was delivered this morning and tomorrow they should bring the sofa. Now all we have left to do is buy some cheap foldable chairs and a temporary table and we are ready to move in! I'm hoping we can move next Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sing for candy

On the last day of the year, my brother came to Begijnendijk to do some 'nieuwjaarszingen' (new year's singing) with Auro. This is an old custom where children go from door to door to sing (wishing people a happy new year) and are in return rewarded with sweets (or some money). It still exists in many regions in Belgium, but has been disappearing from the less densely populated areas (like the one where my father lives). This year, however, it seems there was some kind of comeback of this piece of folklore, because the number of children that came to our door was bigger than I expected and we barely had enough candy (luckily my father is a stingy giver!). 

After we dressed Auro well to face the cold, we hung a cotton bag around his neck (to collect the candy) and off he went with his uncle and his father (who had tried really hard to memorize the words to the song, but could not follow the speed at which my brother sang and only managed to utter the words 'nieuwjaar' from time to time). I went along for a bit too, but returned home to look after my niece as soon as I started to get tired. When the boys came back with their impressive loot of candies and cookies, Auro was equally exhausted and in need of a loooong nap in the afternoon. 

Auro was the youngest singer on the block, but he sure looked the part ;-)

Auro quickly understood what it was really about: getting as much candy as possible!

This is the part that was invented for the fathers (and uncles)  who usually accompany the smallest ones: we are invited to come in and enjoy a glass of Jenever (=an alcoholic traditional liquor you can find in Belgium and the Netherlands, somewhat similar to gin)

Auro proudly posing with his 'snoepjes' (=candy)

Growing

On the 27th, we again traveled to the airport of Pisa and, unbelievable but true, after a delay of only 1 hour, our plane actually took off! Less than 2 hours later we finally were in snowy Belgium!

The next day, on the 28th, I had an appointment at the hospital for another ultrasound. Accompanied by my 3 men (my son, my husband and my father!) I stared at the black and white image of the healthy and ever-growing baby-girl inside of me.Even though I look as if I'm carrying an enormous baby, they estimated her weight to be a little less than 1,5 kg (which is a normal weight at 30 weeks).

Profile of the baby's face

Saved by Santa

Luckily, on the evening of the 25th, our somewhat 'lost' Christmas was saved by 'Babbo Natale' (Santa Claus) who dropped by with a bag of presents. Auro, who last year had still been completely unimpressed by Father Christmas, this time looked at Santa with some suspicion while he greedily accepted the presents that were handed to him. He needed some convincing, but he even posed with him for a picture right before he disappeared back into the dark night ;-)

A merrier Christmas!!

(25/12/2010) I should be in Belgium right now posting photos of our Christmas Eve in front of the Christmas tree and preparing for the big family dinner that I had been looking forward to so much, but instead I'm writing this from the house of my in-laws in Cesenatico (which is in Italy and not in Belgium) and the only photos I can show you were taken at the airport and on the train yesterday.

Let me tell you what happened. Last Tuesday (the 21st) we left the house at 8:20 in the morning for the airport of Pisa, where we arrived just before noon. We stood in line for the check-in and after we had checked in our luggage and gotten our boarding passes, the lady behind the counter noticed I was pregnant. We told her we had a letter from my gynecologist saying it was safe for me to fly. When we handed it to her, however, she noticed that the letter didn't literally say that I was healthy enough to 'fly'. After she spoke with her superiors, she told us the plane would have to leave without us unless the gynecologist could fax them another letter immediately. After some calls to the hospital, we found out that our gynecologist wasn't there on Tuesdays and no one else was certified to fax a letter like that. So, we got back on the train to Genoa. On top of that, Auro was not only exhausted, but had also developed a fever in the meanwhile.

The next morning Remo went to the hospital and got another fit-to-fly letter and in the afternoon we bought a new ticket for Friday (the 24th). On Friday we again left for the airport of Pisa (though a little less excited than on Tuesday). We checked in, they saw the letter and we made it to the gate... where we waited for some time (some hours) until they finally canceled the flight due to the bad weather in Belgium! Remo's parents, whose flight for Belgium from Bologna had also been canceled that same morning, told us to take the train to Cesenatico. And so that is what we did. 

Hoping that we will have better luck on Monday (third and final attempt), I end this post by wishing everybody who reads this a merrier Christmas than ours :-)

Pisa airport

Train between Florence and Bologna

Station of Bologna

Paper shoe

Last night, Saint Nicholas, the Belgian/Dutch (and original) version of Santa Claus, made a detour on his horse and visited our apartment in Genoa. When he came here last year, Auro still didn't have a clue why I was making him leave one shoe in the living room before going to bed, but this year he decorated a paper shoe days in advance. Yesterday evening, before going to bed, he neatly put it under the TV together with a glass of water for the thirsty Saint Nicholas and a carrot for his tired horse. When we went to check his shoe this morning, we found it full of chocolates and candy. Auro must have been a good boy the past year, because he also was rewarded with some toys, a book and a DVD. He discovered everything with great excitement and showed us proudly what the saint had brought for him. Only after a while he interrupted his play for a breakfast of chocolate and candy ;-)

November rains

I know I haven't written in a a while, but not much has happened since the last time I wrote. Remo has been going to work every day while I'm at home with Auro. The rainy  weather that seemed to last forever kept us locked up inside of the apartment most of the time. But here are some pictures of  the past month's 'highlights'. 

Almost one month ago, Auro's nonni (Remo's parents) came to visit us in Genoa. They were here for only 2 days, but it was as 'intense' as a one-week visit for Auro, who, (and as a pregnant and therefore most of the time exhausted mother I have to admit this) to my great joy, needed some extra long naps over the following days to recover from all the excitement. Since it was raining nonstop, we took Auro to la citta' dei bambini (a huge indoor playground/museum for children) here in the old port of Genoa. Needless to say he had a great time and the moment we had to leave (to make it on time for our lunch reservations) was, quite understandably, accompanied by the unavoidable tears... the poor thing!

Auro and I looking into all kinds of mirrors that give funny reflections

Auro dressed as one of his 'idols': Bob the Builder

And here are some photos of what we did at home while it was pouring outside.

Auro with his 'helmet' on his head, saying "Auro moto! Auro moto!" (moto = motorbike)

Auro showing off his 'new' bed (We removed one side, so he can get in and out of his bed by himself. I decided it was time for this, because lifting him in and out was becoming a bit painful for me. Also, with my ever-expanding belly I wasn't able to bend over and give him a goodnight kiss anymore. We are nearly one week later now and, except for the one time he kept climbing out of his bed during his nap time  because he didn't want to sleep, he has slept like an angel in there!) 

Auro posing proudly in front of the Christmas tree that we put up last weekend. He also knows that a Christmas tree is to look at and not to touch (except for the one Christmas ball that is hanging from the lowest branch, which he occasionally touches, ever so delicately, with one finger!)