Italy

I hope I will keep this "short." I tend to get a bit long winded when it comes to typing! :lol:

Here goes!

We just got back from a 17 day "vacation" to Italy. As soon as I found out we were pregnant, I told dh to plan on going this summer with the babies-as BOTH sets of great grandparents are still living-and they live in Italy. So we did. With 2 nine month old babies in tow, my dh, mil, and sil, we made the long trip there. Before I left, ppl were like, "Enjoy all the help!" Well-that was a total JOKE! I'll try to break down the "big stuff

Sleeping: [/b]A nightmare. We kissed our nice schedule goodbye. Not that I was a stickler to it-but boy was it nice. DH and I had the boys from 7am-11pm. NO JOKE! Italy is such a nightlife country-half the time we hadn't even eaten until 8/9pm! By the time we got home, etc...it was 11 pm before they were out. What time did they wake up? Oh-no later than 7/7:30am most days. So-they went from 11-12 hours of sleep-to maybe 8. That was a good night. Because-they would also wake up SCREAMING in the middle of the night-no apparent reason. Made for long days, and really long nights. There was way too much noise-vespas, church bells going off every 15 minutes(laugh-I'm serious!) and playing the Ave Maria at 7:30a, 12noon, and 7:30p, then the sawing of concrete, the chickens, the dogs, the quads going up and down the streets, the beeping of car horns saying hi to others, the tractors, and then the vendors blasting their music, etc so people know they are there. Noisy. Total noise.

Naptime:Was tough for the above noise reasons. You need the windows open-as there is no fan or a/c and it can get hot. We were lucky because most days it was nice and windy and that cooled off the house. But we had to keep a lot of the doors shut-so the boys could sleep. Every night we had to go for a drive before dinner so the boys could make it until 10pm(there really was no choice here). Some naps were a real struggle trying to get them down. It certainly wasn't easy...

Eating: They did well here! Yay! They ate mostly table foods. I bought a ton of baby food while there(which is SO much more expensive than here!). Some days they would eat the baby food, other times they would not. In Italy there certainly was a better selection of food-although a lot of it I wouldn't try(a lot of baby food was fish, rabbit, and well....ya ready for this? HORSE!). The boys loves this one kind that was yogurt with cookie or apples. Devoured it. The LOVED pasta and sauce, green beans with potatoes, bread, bread, and more bread. That helped us be able to eat most nights! They had a lot of fruit that they enjoyed too. It was great because they had fresh, homegrown veggies and fruits. I will admit-we are bad in that department. Feeding time was tough though because we didn't have highchairs-until 4 days before we left. So for 2 weeks they were fed 3 times a day, on our laps. One of us always had at least one baby...

Babies:: Overall-they were great. Less than a week before we left-Nicholas started crawling. He perfected that in Italy-as well as standing too. No fears there. Anthony started crawling 5 days before we came home! Big adjustments! He's trying to stand now too. Everything there is either concrete or marble floors-so it was tough at times. They wanted to move-and mil thought it was "dangerous" so she would freak out everytime they made a move. Anthony got his first 2 bruises on his head while we were there....and....FOUR TEETH! Holy moly! All four top teeth came in over in Italy. Can you believe that?
They both got colds-from the gazillion people touching them! I kid you not! Some of you think it's bad here when you go to the stores, etc...it PALES in comparison over there! OMG! EVERY SINGLE PERSON wanted-and DID touch them. I couldn't be the crazy American mother! And-I understand that's their culture-and they wouldn't understand where I was coming from. Nicholas started to have little temper tantrums by the time we got there-so that was something new too. Oh-and they both say dadadadada like it's going out of style!

MIL/SIL:: Well-I am happy to report-they made it home alive with us! :rotflmbo: There were some things that got to me about mil: "Should we give them something? They're kinda fussy." READ: MEDICINE. I said nope-they were fine. She had a heart attack everytime they made a move. They are going to learn-even if it's the hard way. I'm not going to hold them in my lap all day long! We had to go visit every one and their mother ALL THE TIME! I think a good majority of these able bodied, have a car people, should be coming to see us! We are the ones with the infants! Geesh! Overall-it was better than the previous two times I have been.

DH and I:: Did NOT have a vacation, nor did we enjoy ourselves-for the most part. Granted-we were not there for leisure, etc. We were there to see the great grandparents. But-you would think with all this extra help(sil said, "bring the boys over whenever-we will watch them. When we did-she said she was too tired and needed to sleep.), that dh and I would have alone time. NOPE! WRONG! We had ONE three hour break-in THREE WEEKS-without the babies. That was for our anniversary when we went out to dinner. That was it. We never got to go to the bar at night and hang out. We would drop the mil and sil off at the bar, and continue home. No one ever offered to put the boys to bed-heck-we could even put them to bed-someone would just need to stay there while they sleep-so we could go to the bar. Never. Ever. Remember-we had the babies from 7am-11pm! EVERY NIGHT! We did every feeding, diaper change, nap time, bath time, etc. Sure-someone might have a baby-but I personally, don't think of a "break" being one hour. I think of multiple hours-and that never happened. I get more free time at home than there. Oh well.

So-that's it in a nutshell. It won't happen for a long time-at least 5 years. Which is sad, really sad. Who's to say the great grandparents will be there still. It hit dh really hard this morning too. It really sucks some times-they are great people and they will possibly only see their great grandhildren once. Yes-it wasn't a vacation, but I'm glad we did it. DH and I have the memories-and the smiles on the great grandparents faces will never be erased.

Pictures to follow...

 

:yahoo: for great memories. :hug99: for vacation being so much work. It gets easier. :hug99: Thanks for the recap!

 

awww, meg, sorry it wasn't better...chalk it up to an "adventure"?? and adventure you never want to do again....ha ha! it is too bad people didn't give you any sort of break. that is a long time to be "on" w/ the babies. i'm sure you are glad to be back and get back into some sort of normal routine.

Lois

 

There should be nothing you cant tackle now!!

I hope you can get everyone back on a schedule with ease!! Glad to have you back!!

 

Wow, you really are a pro now! What a trip. Any tips for me on flying. We are leaving Wed. for Vegas. Almost a 5 hour trip. I am stressing... :wacko: :wacko:

 

Thanks for the update! I am sorry that you and DH did not get much of a break but it sounds like you both (the boys) made good memories with the great grandparents! Hooray for crawling and teeth!

 

We just got back from two different vacations: one with his family, one with my side. Well both vacations we got no help. It was no fun. More work than being at home. There was so much we could not do and enjoy b/c of all of our kids. I am not saying that we did not have a good time with our kids, I am saying that me and DH had no time together.

 

Wow! I sure admire your strength!!
That really bites that no one gave you a break! I just dont get that...they couldnt do a feeding or change a diaper every now and then??? Those people deserve a slap in the face!
Well-sounds like you got some good quality time in with the kids and no better place then ITALY! I am glad you got to see the Great Grandparents and had a nice visit!
Hope you have an okay time getting back on track!

 

Wow reading your post brought back memories of my 'vacation' in May. It was EXHAUSTING and I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown after 11 days with DH's family at their lake house. There was little or no help, no alone time with DH (although one night I left the girls with DH and went to a bar with his sisters because I needed a beer and some adult conversation since I was the one watching them alone all day while DH's sisters had DH do repairs to the cabin), and hardly any sleep (A got 2 new teeth and M got 4). When I got home I seriously needed a break. I hope you can hire a sitter, get out of the house for a couple hours, get a latte and a pedicure and have a mini-vacation because you sure worked hard enough for everyone else to be able to visit with your munchkins. :hug99: