Last exam

Today FINALLY we did the last exam at the hospital. No, silly, I haven't started school yet, it's not that kind of exam, but a medical control. Babies that are born in Italy, well, at least those born in Lombardia -ok, at least those in Pavia, have to do a series of controls to see if they are ok in the first few months of their lives. More or less every week since the end of january my mum has brought me to do these controls. There have been 2 ultrasounds of the hips, 2 ultrasounds of my back, an electrocardiogram, 1 month control in neonatologia, vaccination, 2 months control at my baby-doctor...and well, is that all? My parents are glad that the doctors of Pavia control us babies so well, but they are a bit exhausted of the organization. Why can't I for example just go once and have all these controls done in one go (except maybe the one and two month control which you cannot do in one go) ? Every time my mum has to fight to find a parking at the hospital, then even if the visit is scheduled months ahead you have to wait for up to an hour for your turn, and then maybe the personal is talking on the phone with their mother while they are supposed to be visiting you! Then a young baby has limited time where it can stay calm and doesn't ask to eat...but somehow all these visits seem to end with my mum, along with all the other mums having to breastfeed me and or walk around with me to distract me or keep me from getting nervous!
I want to give you two examples of how difficult a visit like this can be for the nerves of a new mother and the baby.
Well, first example is the prescription example. In italy, if you want to go to a specialist of have an exam in the hospital you have to bring a prescription -which in turn has to be made by your private doctor. Even if it's the hospital personnel that books the control for you while you've just been born and are still in hospital, the exam is obligatory and a part of a national screening-scheeme, you still have to bring a prescription. When I went to do the ultrasound of the hips the first time, my mum had gone to my doctor to get the prescription a couple of days earlier, but she didn't notice that instead of writing ultrasound he wrote X-ray. So when I came to the hospital to do the ultrasound the prescription was no good and although it would have been enough to cancel X-ray and write ultraound, by hand -it had to be done by my doctor -and no one else! This meant that my mum had to call the doctor (not an easy task) and get an appointment that same morning, put me in the car, go to the doctor in the other end of town, get the new prescription, go back to the hospital (again fighting to find a parking space) and bring the correct prescription. Just as good that I'm an excellent baby that doesn't complain too much, and don't mind beeing fed in unfamiliar waiting rooms of hospitals or doctor's office. I was however exhaustd in the end and somewhere between the doctor's office and the second time in hospital I fell asleep and didn't wake up for a couple of hours...so maybe my mum actually did other rounds in town before I woke up!!!
The second example I want to give you is from the electrocardiogram control. This is an exam that has been obligatory for all babies born in italy (well at least pavia) the last 5 years. Here's the scene. My mum brought me to the hospital at 8 o'clock in the morning. Luckily it was soon my turn, so she brought me into the examination-room where I was dressed naked and the doctor put a lot of electordes on my torso, legs and hands. I had never been in a room like that before, and being an exploratore I kept looking around. This was bad news for the doctor who ordered my mum to calm me down! But I was calm like the ocean, I was just looking around. But no, that was not good enough, and after several failed attempt to get the exam done the doctor sent my mum out in the corridor to calm me down. "Feed him! " was the advice she gave my mum. So off we were into the corridor, where a dozen of other mum's were waiting, all with milk-tanks or bottles out for feeding or calming down their puppies or trying to get them to stop their hickup or to stop histerical crying, -the perfect environment to calm a baby. I wasn't really hungry, but my mum tried to feed me anyway, when that didn't calm me she put me in the kangaroo-bag and carried me around the hospital corridors. Once in a while the doctor passed to check if I was calm enough, but I never was -who would be when you still have a million electrodes hanging from your body and a lot of crying babies around you? My mum actually wondered how calm I'd have to be to satisfy the calm-criteria of the hospital, would sleeping do or was dead the limit? Finally this circus got me so tired that I fell asleep. "Now there's a calm baby" said the doctor next time she passed, and invited my mum to enter into the examination room. But the moment the doctor had attached all the electrodes again to her machine I woke up to my mum's and mainly the doctor's despair and started looking around. "Try feeding him here" said the doctor, for obviously I was no longer calm enough for the control. My mum wasn't sure that she was joking, but having spent more than an hour trying to calm me down she was desperate to get me out of there, so she pulled out one of the milk-tanks, bent over the table where I was lying all connected up with electrodes and fed me. It had a magical effect and I was calm enough (although not sleeping) for the doctor to complete the exam. When I was back out in the corridor of crying babies and my mum had to wait for the results of the exam I simply fell asleep and slept like a stone until we were back home.
I'm glad I only had to go there once, but think about the people that work there and have to participate in this circus every day!
But as I said above, I've done the last of the programmed exams! Now I just have to go for a checkup with my doctor and repeat the vaccination and that's it. We've managed.