From Italy, with love

I flew with the children to Italy on Tuesday and I'll stay for almost two weeks. I have to say the flights were much better than I thought. Oliver was on his best behaviour and Martina slept a bit on both legs of the journey. We stopped over in Frankfurt for just over an hour and we manage to all go to the toilet with no accidents. For Oliver was a big adventure, he was mamma's helper and really made me proud. On the fully booked Dublin-Frankfurt flight, the flight attendant near the end realised I was travelling on my own (I had a very nice and helpful German lady sitting beside me) and commented on how calm I was and was I used to it. I said no, first time on my own with two and thought about saying something like "it's the happy pill that keeps me sane" but then again, what if she didn't think I was joking and really thought I was high on something? So I didn't say it. But I was incredibly calm.

On thing that made the journey that bit more challenging was that I was on day 2 of my period so I was very self conscious. I was also loaded as a Sherpa and briefly contemplated wearing Martina only to be thankful I didn't as I really had too many bits and pieces and the stroller was our little mule. Oliver used the toilet 3 times on the plane including a poo about 30 minutes before landing which meant the "go back to your seat" sign lit up almost as soon as Oliver sat on the loo (can you imagine the amount of time I said "don't touch that it's dirty!!!"). Anyway, we got to Bologna safe and sound and I realised how much my son has grown in the last 4 months. This journey was unthinkable only in the summer.

The first night here, Martina slept seven hours straight. That almost never happens. Of course the next night she was up every hour or so... Go figure. One other important think is that I decided to fully wean Martina. My boobs are sore again, and I have had enough of this. I feel like a champ for having lasted so long with so many problems and I'm hoping this will give us at home a bit more exchange-ability at night time. To those of you who still believe there is "a method" that works with every child please keep it to yourself. In my experience is the child that has a method, either it agrees with yours or it doesn't. The child will sleep eventually, but you have little to do with when that will happen. I too had a child who slept through very early and now I have another one who would need to be sedated to do the same. Daytime sleeps are textbook, nights are a beast of their own. Ah well.

I leave you with some love, chat soon!