Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sunday at our House


Believe it or not, Charlotte slept until 8:20 a.m. Did I use this time to get cracking on my enormous to do list? Did I prep a lecture, write a query about copy editing, or even do some laundry? Er...no. I set the alarm for 6 a.m. It awoke me from a disturbing dream (seriously, if I could do Julia Cameron's morning pages, I'd have some amazing screenplays. I even had the privilege of taking a screenwriting with her in a previous iteration of my life. Geesh.) and I decided to let Charlotte be my alarm.
Oh well.

We had a quiet Sunday. We met our friends Esther, Dave, and Sarah at a street fair to watch Chicago's Trinity Dancers. Charlotte was asked to step away from the stage as she attempted to join the show. Sarah stood at a respectable distance (though she is the one in focus in the picture--can you pick her out, Esther?).

My pals Sheri and Beth came for brunch. Charlotte was, I think, so excited about this that she didn't fall asleep until nearly 1 p.m. and then managed to sleep through most of their visit.

I was hoping to report a great-eating, no vomit day, but, alas, we had a big vomit at dinner. (Charlotte did to her credit, finish an entire baby yogurt for breakfast and a quarter cup of pizza puree for lunch.)

On the vomiting front: I don't blog about this often any more, but it's gotten worse again. We're seeing at least one significant vomit a day as well as many gags and mini-vomits. I've written a log of blog entries about this in my mind, but I loath writing about it. I am at my wits' end and end every meal close to tears. Part of our CHOW strategy is to firmly tell her "no" when she gags. I have to yell at her when she's in pain and unhappy because we can't tell when it is reflux or behavior. So, in other words, I have to scare my baby and make her cry. It's breaking my heart.
And what does she do? When I burp (yeah, I do occasionally burp), she pets my chest, looks concerned, and says "Mommy okay." She thinks it hurts me to burp like it hurts her. She is the sweetest child I have ever known. And while I would do anything to change her medical circumstances, I would not do a thing if it would alter her personality.
Gotta go before the tears soak my keyboard.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Charlotte: My name is Kerry Otto and I am the manager of Web Communications at Children's Memorial Hospital. I saw your wonderful blog several weeks ago; thank you SO much for your positive comments about the hospital and its staff.

I wonder if you would contact me at 773.880.6874 about the possibility of using a few snippets of your blog to publish in our employee newsletter. Thanks for your consideration.

Kerry

Anonymous said...

I can spot the monkey on her shirt!

Esther