Road Trip--Week 2 : Eating Adventures

Hi all,
So, the plan was to create a gallery of photos of Charlotte's "guest feeders" as she travelled from Chicago to Richmond VA, to Virginia Beach to NJ. We have not managed to capture all of Charlotte's pals on camera, so the gallery will follow in the coming days. Moreover, Charlotte has not been eating well, making "guest feeding" a bit difficult.

Charlotte is a real trooper in the car--she only whines when she needs something. She's easily distracted when I sit in the back with her. She giggles and wiggles a lot at rest stops. But...apparently sitting in a car seat for hours on end can irritate the esophogus. Who knew? Certainly not The Amateurs. Maybe because of this, maybe for other reasons, Charlotte began refusing her bottle a day or two into the trip. I mean, really thrusting it out of her mouth. It took several days and back and forths with our docs, but we finally came to the conclusion that we needed to up the Zantac dose. While it's taken several more days to kick in, that seems to be working.

In the meantime....the beach was mostly too hot and windy to enjoy with little baby this year. We did have a lovely time on the boardwalk one evening and visiting at home with our pals Eva and Bill. Not the relaxing experience VA Beach usually is due to the feeding struggles.

On we moved to NJ. We arrived last night. By 1:30 a.m., Charlotte had pulled her NG tube out not once, but twice. Needless to say, I was at my wits' end. Completely. Philippe had to leave at 6:30 a.m. for NYC for work so we decided to see if she'd eat without the tube. No dice. Next to nothing by noon. Mom and I ended up taking Charlotte to the Pediatric Emergency room at Overlook Hospital. I was concerned 1) that her skin was sooooo raw from the tape and that was making her miserable and 2) that she appeared to have lost her appetite over the past week.

I'll spare you all the details. Suffice to say, "parental anxiety" but supported by physician consult. Baby is just fine. Nurse Patty at Overlook reinserted the tube and gave us a new kind of tape to try. Charlotte has had 2/3 of the each of the last two bottles we've given her. And I'm off to see if she'll take a bit more before the night is through.

Most important part of the trip (saving the best for last)--Charlotte meets her family, her aunts, uncles and cousins. Pictures to come shortly!