Little Italy 24

[BananaGio]

Ciao tutte!

How are the ds ( gio and spu) ,the dd - sput and you ?
We might do pancakes this pm but seeing as I am back on my diet then maybe not might save until Sunday and so them for breakfast.
COld but beautiful here and I can't find my sunglasses......must still be in one of the 10 boxes I have left !

Looks like DS just has a cold, thankfully.
DD is at her aunties' this afternoon, as I had to take DS to speech therapy, so she will be administering the 3.00 pm meds, I wished her luck! Hopefully DD will be too embarassed to do the 20 minute mini drama with her.
It is definitely spring here, though it's still cold.

Hi guys, sorry for the long absence. All well at this end but MasterSG has been ill on and off since late November- hence the radio-silence. Usual childhood bugs I guess, but they disrupted his up-to-then-wonderful sleep and we have been BFding 3x times a night for the last 3 months. Not really something you expect to start doing again at 11 months!

Anyway, his brilliant nanny suggested giving him pasta in the evening, we tried last night and he slept 9pm-6am! Fingers crossed that it continues. Needless to say he is having pasta tonight too. Am amused that he is becoming more and more like me: he even likes focaccia and gianduiotti.

Sorry to hear about coldsm, tonsils and problems with tendons, muscles etc. I have not caught up properly but hope that everybody gets better soon.

How is the speech therapy going, Sput? Have been thinking about it from time to time but never have time to catch up properly (used to do so when breastfeeding but have been so shattered recently that I end up asleep before the baby). Well, toddler: he has been walking since Capodanno...

Rosa, your cake sounds v impressive. This from somebody who found stencilling a "1" onto a chocolate cake challenging... DS had his 1st birthday party recently (at nearly 14 months): had to postpone it because of all the illnesses in the first part of the year. He likes cake!

Nanny clocking off soon, so back to retrieve MasterSG and prepare for friend coming for dinner. Have made pizza and apple cake- hope he is not expecting anything impressive...

Hi SG sorry you've been having a tough time with master SG, their first few winters are always a round of illnesses IME, and you are lucky if you don't get all the bugs too! Hope the improved sleep lasts, it must be awful having to go to work after being up 3 times in the night. Sleep deprivation is the worst.

DS's speech is actually coming on in leaps and bounds atm, and we started this ABA therapy 3 weeks ago, which is aimed at children with ASD, which DS was eventually diagnosed as being at the mild end of, IYSWIM. We did 3 very intense weeks going in every day to a centre, now we have 4 weeks where we do the therapy ourselves, with support, then another week at the centre every month for a year. It is really brilliant and I am very pleased, DS was making great progress anyway but has come along even more, every day he seems to surprise us with something. He still has a lot to catch up with though.

I was told today I have to have an operation on my shoulder, as the cartillage holding the top of the arm in place is broken. It is a bummer as I need time to recover afterwards, can't drive etc, which I have to do a lot of to get the DCs to school, speech therapy etc. We will have to work something out somehow. I have to see the surgeon next to find out exactly what the recovery time is etc.

sorry to hear re the op Sput. Its good its something they can fix but doesn't make the period of recovery any easier!Do you have anyone nearby who can help out with lifts etc?
welcome back SG and sorry to hear re Master SG's illnesses. Agree its a nightmare re illnesses at the beginning. The worst I found was DS's first year in Materna- suddenly exposed to all these bugs, he seemed to be ill every other week. This weird virus he has now has been the first thing this winter that has been a proper illness rather than just a mild cold etc so been lucky. He seems a bit better this morning anyway.
Sput so glad that DS's speech is improving so much now. You must feel so relieved, especially thinking re how worried you were initially before diagnosis as to what it could be.
Ah sun is shining again this morning, this is more like it! Now if the temp will go up by about 7 degrees I will be very happy indeed with my lot

Yes I should be grateful really that it's fixable and that I have insurance from DH's work that will pay for it. I am going to see the chirugo tomorrow.
On the upside DD is a lot better today and actually had breakfast so she is on the mend :)
Gio we really have to sort out our meetup, I showed DD your DS's superman pic and just thought it is ridiculous we never managed it! Hopefully from next week we will be back to some kind of normality and can organise it soon.

Yes Sput lets do it! Let me know when things quieten down and we will sort something out. Glad DD better. DS still has weird fever that comes and goes. nothing this morn, now 37.5 again. boh! totally not himself. Not helped by fact we have just gone for his first eye test. We went to the clinic at Policlinico Umberto, waited for 2.5 hrs, queued in the usual million queues to pay, timbrare blah blah and then got in and the doctor gave us a 5 min visita when she fired questions at ds inbetween arguing with her colleague about some hospital issue. At the end she just said-questo bambino non vede bene- we need more tests and so we have to go back in May. Now I am usually chilled re healthcare, am not one for second opinions and accept they are the experts not me PERO came out feeling very unsure. Firstly because of the speed of the visita, secondly because I explained ds is bilingual ie his speech is a bit behind and she just snapped-va bene -he can reply in English if he wants- totally missing my point that he may not have the words to identify the magic images on the paper that I was not allowed to look at. Then thirdly she fired through the questions and the poor kid just gave up and kept saying dont know dont know. Boh! Am thinking of getting a second opinion.

That sounds like crap Gio, I would try and get another test too. Only 2.5 hours at the policlinico though! Lightweight!

I know-dont know am born. Yeah think am def getting another test done. DS just fallen asleep next to me on sofa now, he's totally worn out. Am now actually feeling guilty re marching him back to school after one day earlier this week....

Poor thing, hope he's better soon.
DS has become like a different child this week, it is incredible how his language has gone up several notches. And it's lovely to see how he and DD are relating better too. He just said "DS want to draw a picture of a cat", DD then proceeded to draw him one, under his instructions, then a house, then he coloured it and asked to hang it up! I know this may not sound like much but it is huge for us!
Just thought I'd share :)

Aww Sput that is lovely - how soo sweet. LOng may he continue to improve !
Sorry about your shoulder but at least you know what it is . Mind you things like that do take long to heal afterwards - bugger about the no driving.
Gio agree 100% go for a second opinion without a doubt if poss in a different place - I know its not everybodies option but private might be better just for the initial consultation You get more answers when you need them.
Gio this febbre thing is the one that goes on for a week or so . Nil in teh am and then it comes up againin the pm. Both my nipote had it.
DD went back to school felice this morning - 4 of her friends have this grand febbrone and the teacher had it over the weekend. Hope she built up enough anticorpi in teh 6 weeks she was off!
DH has thrown me a surprise- how about we take teh girls to Disney ( Florida) in Dec this year before Xmas...... Not sure if we can make the accounts balance but its a lovely idea.

Sput: I am really glad to hear your DS is doing so well. Your description of the cat-drawing brought a big smile.

Gio: I would go for a second opinion. The chap you saw might be right, but you won't feel at ease until it has been confirmed by somebody who is actually paying attention to what they are doing. I know I would not. What awful bedside manner though! I am sorry to hear it went like that, esp after a 2.5 hour wait. Had just read an article on BBC that too few GPs know enough about paediatrics to care for children and was thinking the Italian system, with the pediatra di base, was much better. Your post suggests Uk and Italy are very similar in some respects....

SG I think generally the Italian system is better due to the pediatra di base. think the problem today was we were the last after a morning of hellish queues in the hospital, the specialist was too busy arguing about some hospital scandal with her colleague so just hurried him through. I asked ds before if he could see the letters and he said she was going too fast and he felt poorly. so second opinion it is!
Sput that is fab re your DS, am so pleased.
Rosa - Disney Land -your girls will love it! do you think you will.

After hearing stories of really crap GPs in the UK from people on my post-natal thread I have to agree with Gio that the italian system is better. Both the paeds I had were very meticulous and erred o the side of caution. The also gave us there cell numbers and had no problem about being phoned any time.
When you get to consultant level its a lottery really. And good or bad there is always a tonne of waiting and time wasting to get through.

Sorry forgot to say Hi to Sui ieri. I think teh paed care is better here as they are specialists - Agreed some GPs don't know enough but I als think that GPs in teh Uk are overloaded as more and more stuff is being shoved on them.
Here as Sput says when you get to consultant level then it is a lottery unles syou go private and you can pick your conultant and we all know ho teh Italians love discussing docs and ailments so usually you can weed out teh good ones.
WHat did the surgeon say sput?
DIsney I have been and know it will be totally different with the dds- Mind you I have been trying to lok up prices etc etc and its taking me ages teh more I look the more confused I get !

sorry key board batteries going so loads of errors..MUST READ BEFORE POSTING !

Good news the surgeon said I don't need an operation, it's something called frozen shoulder, I have to do infiltrazioni and physio. I am really pleased. It is hurting a lot after having the needle stuck in though!

I have heard of that ..Good news about the Op ...just hope everything works and the pain is worth it ...

Yes I was talking to my mum and she said she had it around my age. It mostly affects women aged 40-60 apparently.

oh thats good news Sput. When do you start treatment?
Just sitting here watching Japanese footage on Sky-cannot get my head around the scale of it.

I am just in complete horror at the whole thing and feel helpless...WHat can you do ? Hope and Pray I think .....

Hello ragazze, I hope all the mini little Italians have recovered from their colds/flu/nasty bugs that have been tormenting us in the last few months and so glad to hear that Sputnik doesn't need an operation (have to say that I really at looking forward to the MRI as me time !)

Hello SG.

Rosa, happy to hear the party went well, and so exciting about Disneyland!

We had a lovely, lovely week in the mountains, the weather -apart from Monday- was amazing, really warm and sunny (I really needed some sunshine as my mood was really low). The children had a great time and I have to say that they really enjoy skiing and are generally delightful when on the slopes, I even contemplated the silly idea of a life in the mountains at some point!

Now we are back to grey milan and the usual routine, uffa.

Sput, so lovely that ds is progressing so well, I am happy you found the right support for him.

I am shocked by what happened/is happening in Japan.

Franca so glad you had a good time - I agree the sun does wonders for a good mood. Its grey and dull here today as well. Disneyland looks great but it is expensive however after what is happening in the world I think we will probably go for it . However will wait and see.
I think I will donate to either the Red Cross or the medical ones who get in everywhere fast. I just feel that I ought to do something to help.

Grey and dull here as well, but def warmer than when we left last week.
I want to donate too, but have to decide to whom.

www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/mar/14/donate-help-japan-after-tsunami-earthquake