home again, home again, jiggity jig

Bill was away on a business trip last week so I decided it was a good time to make the voyage back to BR to visit friends and family. I was more than a bit apprehensive about making the trip solo, my first time driving the 4 hour journey alone. What if Caroline started screaming halfway through the trip? What if she threw up? How would I manage the dog, the baby, and myself when attempting to stop for a bathroom break? Naturally, I turned to Amazon in search of unnecessary-yet-highly-alluring gadgets to make the trip easier. At the advice of several TX moms making the trip home to LA regularly, I bought a portable dvd player that straps to the headrest so she could watch movies. This also meant that we had to turn her carseat around to face forward- a double win! She could see out the window! She could watch kid-addicting Disney movies! With our trip planned to coincided with naptime, it seemed like an ace in the hole.

I spent the better part of 2 days packing up all the gear necessary for a one week trip home...my clothes, her clothes, dog stuff, bottles, baby food, 3 boxes of clothes to go in storage at Nana's house. I had high expectations that I could somehow neatly and precisely arrange everything in the car to look something like this:

expectation

And yet somehow we always end up looking more like this:

reality

This makes me question the sanity of our decision to go to the beach this summer. Packing all this, PLUS a portable crib and stroller and wagon and floaties and rafts and beach gear? Lord help us, we'll need a u-haul for the 8 hour trip. But I'm happy to report the trip there and back was a success, thanks to the miracles of modern technology. I had hoped she would nap for at least some of the trip, but that was not happening. Luckily she was pretty happy to watch her movies and only fussed a bit here and there. We stopped at the TX and LA welcome centers to take a break and eat lunch and stretch our legs. I now have the bathroom-and-lunch routine down pat: ask a nice elderly woman at a picnic table to watch Winnie (who's tied to a post). Ask a nice younger woman in the bathroom to hold Caroline while I use the restroom. Use the bumpo at a picnic table for an impromptu high chair. Pack lunch items that can be devoured in 10 minutes or less (that's about as long as she can tolerate the bumpo). Live and learn and voyage on!

Anywho, it was a nice visit and we got to see and spend time with everyone on our list. Among the highlights:

We spent one afternoon at the neighborhood park with Nana. The swings were a big hit, as was trying her first sip of Diet Coke and watching the little boys baseball practice. Caroline also confiscated some random little girl's tricycle...as soon as the girl wandered off to the play equipment Caroline climbed aboard and promptly started punching all the buttons on the bike. The little girl was not thrilled about sharing her trike and started crying, so we attempted to keep Caroline off it but resistance was futile. She made a beeline for it every time we put her down.

bike stealer

Nana is always looking for forbidden foods
to sneak to the baby...

heeeeey boys! such a flirt.

There was a delightful Louisiana thunderstorm Wednesday morning, which meant forgoing our usual jog and instead spending the morning inside. Growing weary of chasing Caroline around Nana's minimally-childproofed house, I finally caved and turned on Sesame Street for a moment of relief. She was fascinated, since she never gets to watch much tv at home. She plopped herself down in her big teddy bear and enjoyed the show.

the ultimate tv viewing chair

On Wednesday afternoon my cousin Maggie babysat while I ran a few errands. They visited MaMa at her home and Caroline had a blast playing with her dog Honey. Poor thing, since her own dog gives her the cold shoulder all the time she's always ecstatic to encounter a dog who's happy to see her.

She was equally delighted to see Aunt Emmy's service dog Kline when we visited her workplace on Thursday. She made the rounds and charmed all of Emmy's coworkers, but the highlight of the visit was definitely getting covered in dog kisses.

Unfortunately our trip was not all fun and games...we also made a visit to her pediatric GI to discuss the return of her symptoms. Since our last visit in February, she had only gained half a pound in 10 weeks. (Compare that to last time, when she was doing well, she had gained 2 pounds in 6 weeks.) The doctor wants to increase the dosage on all her meds, since they were so effective in the beginning. If that doesn't help, he wants to see us again in May so he can admit her to the hospital for some additional testing to determine if surgery will be the best option to help her. At this time we believe that her problems are all caused by the hiatal hernia, the acid reflux, and the gastroparesis, but we don't know how much discomfort comes from each. He needs additional information before he can decide if surgery will help her, so he's ordering a gastric emptying scan test (which monitors how fast or slowly her stomach empties) and a PH probe (which monitors the frequency and intensity of her reflux). We will do the gastric scan on May 20 in the morning, and then start the PH probe in the afternoon. She'll have to stay in the hospital overnight which I'm definitely not looking forward to. How on earth am I going to keep this highly mobile energetic baby confined and entertained in a hospital room? I'm calling for reinforcements and inviting anyone who wants to visit to stop by Our Lady of the Lake and take a turn at 'pass the baby'...so far I've enlisted my mom and cousin Maggie, and I'm sure MaMa and Aunty Em will make an appearance. Keep those prayers coming! I know these tests won't be easy but hopefully we will get some good information out of them and figure out how to make sweet Caroline feel better.