Nonna’s Here!

We’ve been looking forward to this moment since we left Canada. The arrival of a grandma means lots of snuggles for Baby, a best friend for me, and in this case, lots of home made goodies for all of us have shown up. Thanks to Gramma Montague for her famous Nutella Rice Krispies Rolls, and brownies — we’ve put them in the freezer to assure we don’t plow through them by tomorrow, which is completely possible. We certainly weren’t lacking in the food department (see my last post on gelato…I hope you didn’t do the math to see how long it took us to try all those places, as “not long enough” is a very reasonable answer) but nothing beats a grandmother’s baking!

Mum’s flight was right on schedule, and while she hurried through the airport to collect her luggage (well, luggage for us really but more on that later), retrieve her train ticket from the kiosk and board said train all within 40 minutes of landing, she missed boarding by one minute. Thankfully, a very understanding attendant allowed her to board the next train free of charge so she was only 10 minutes behind schedule.

She let us know once she was settled on the train, and that gave us about a forty minute window before we were to meet at Piazza del Quirinale, just up the road from our apartment. Tyler, Baby and I nipped out for fresh juice (three carrots, two grapefruit, one orange, two apples, a handful of grapes, pineapple and ginger — so delicious!), croissants and coffees, and met her at the square. For me, fresh good food is all I’m craving after a long flight, so I thought this would be the perfect arrival gift.

Unfortunately, Tyler is still under the weather, so while my mum, Baby and I went for a tour of the sites, Tyler stayed home to rest. We covered a lot of ground, and ate a lot of food, but mostly we caught up on work and life, and smiled at Baby.

In regard to the luggage, a bit of a back story might be helpful. While my hope had been to breast feed, I was one of the few that just couldn’t produce enough milk to keep our little guy nourished. We visited nine specialists, had his tongue tie released, topped up each breast feed with finger/cup/tube feeding, pumped after every feed, didn’t pump at all to see if there would be a build up, took herbal remedies, and 16 prescription pills a day all to try to boost my supply, with no luck. Logically, you have to feed a hungry baby so we chose to switch to formula after six weeks of trying different approaches to breast feeding. Tyler was ready to switch sooner than I was, after watching me cry through every appointment and feel like a failure for not being able to do something that was supposed to be natural. For nine months though, all I was told was that “breast is best” and that formula fed babies were more apt to A-B-C and D (all negative things) so I did not want to give in. Now that we’ve made the switch, I have to tell you that it’s pretty great. It’s a relief to know he’s full and happy, but also so much easier in my case, and has allowed me to focus on my relationship with Baby oppose to spending all day dreading the next feed. You can see I’m still defensive of it, as three months later I’m explaining myself, but can you blame me? There is a lot of judgement regarding formula, and I suppose I want you to know that I did try. My mentor would say “it’s none of their business” but I’m not quite strong enough to disregard your opinions of me. Anyway, here we are.

So, all that to say, we were regretting that Italy doesn’t stock the same brand of formula we use but couldn’t pack enough to bring six weeks worth. Yesterday at 3 pm we finally used the very last of the formula we had brought over, which was just in time for Mary Poppins to show up with a bag full of loot for us including enough formula to last until the end of our trip! Party time! Nice that we don’t have to switch back and forth between brands, that’s for sure.

We’re looking forward to spending the week with one very special lady! We have a lot planned, and I can’t wait to tell you about it!

Until next time,

J xo