Our overnight excursion

Baby Charlie and I took the train down from Philadelphia to DC on Tuesday for his two month doctor's visit and an overnight stay to see Carlos. Baby Charlie loves the train - though not the train conductor who would wake him up at every stop. And it turns out that there is no better way to keep someone from sitting next to you on the train than to flash a baby! Whether they were scared of crying or poopy diapers the masses stayed away.

We got a glimpse of what we were in for (regarding his size) when we stopped in at the breastfeeding center which is in the same building as the doctor and which on Tuesdays opens its doors to breastfeeding mothers to come talk about breastfeeding concerns. I guess this is what mothers in western countries do - support groups for breastfeeding. There must have been 25 moms and 24 babies (one woman was only pregnant - weird!) crammed into a tiny room, each sharing their breastfeeding concern and sympathizing with each other. I didn't really have anything to say so I tried to make up some worry so as to fit in! Anyways, I talked with moms around me and we shared baby facts - like how old, blah, blah blah. Well - the baby on my right was twice Charlie's age and half his size! And on the left the baby was his same age and maybe a third of his size. I wanted to ask if the baby was a preemie, but figured that wasn't polite. And she looked at me like I had the pillsbury dough baby. Indeed the doctor confirmed that Charlie is in the 99th percentile for weight!! At least my child is in the 99th percentile of something...! He weighed in at 15 lbs. According to the graph she showed us Charlie is almost OFF the chart!! He is in the 90th percentile for height and head size too. Even the doctor was surprised when she saw the size of Carlos and me -- I think she expected Carlos to be a linebacker for the redskins or something.

All that chub didn't seem to help when it came to dealing with the shots. Two on each leg and one orally. He was so pissed that he wouldn't even nurse - and that's really pissed for him. I tried to blame the nurse but he didn't seem to care. Although we had planned to all camp out at the house with no electricity or water, Carlos had the foresight to get us a hotel instead. So knocked-out-baby (he cried until he slept) and I went around town and then to the hotel while Carlos AND the diaper bag went back to work. The part about the diaper bag is key because it had - surprise - diapers (!) and tylenol. Carlos thought he'd be done by 5 so at 4:30 I freed him of his stinky diaper and covered him with a towel. Well it wasn't until 7 that Carlos arrived and in the meantime we went through every towel in the bathroom!! Finally I had the idea to take a bath with him so he could pee all he wanted. That lasted about 10 minutes before his fever started raging and he went ballistic - I thought the hotel was going to kick us out. Finally Carlos arrived with diapers and tylenol and situation improved quickly. Oh - and of course after using all the towels we decided to change rooms! I think they had taken one look at me and put us up in the attic room which Carlos didn't approve of so we ended up in a much nicer room (with more towels!).

I really appreciated that the gave us a crib and a robe just for him. Here's some pictures of me and him lounging in our robes...

I also appreciated this shot of how Carlos' closet these days....