This past weekend, we packed up the Griswold family truckster and hit the road again... only this time we didn't follow our usual north-westernly route to Ohio. We actually headed to Charlotte, NC to pay a visit to loyal Followers Mama G and Papa Rob and to meet their precious baby girl, Anneliese. Her middle name is Sophia, so we all call her "Fi" for short. They hadn't seen Alli in a few months, so we felt a visit was in order. After ducking out of work early on Friday, we made the quick 3-hour drive to NC with dog and baby on board. I'm sure both were thinking, "Oh lord, here we go again."
Fi still sleeps in her swing, so Alli got the luxury of using Fi's crib for the weekend. This turned out to be a double-edged sword - because even though it would be nice for Alli to not have to sleep in a Pack'n'Play, Fi's crib hasn't been lowered yet. Followers will recall that just last week we caught Alli pulling herself up the side of the crib and standing on her own. The moment I walked into Fi's room and saw the "high" mattress, I had a feeling it could pose a problem. But Mommy B and I decided to roll the dice and see what happened.
We had one chief concern - that Alli would pull herself up the side of Fi's crib and tumble over if we didn't catch her in time. But we didn't really know how much of a problem it would be if she was half asleep when we put her down to bed. We had only caught her doing it once, and it was when she was still "awake" before a nap. Well, we were going to find out one way or another.
We arrived in Charlotte by about 3:30pm and Alli had slept for much of the drive. As her bedtime rolled around, we gave her a bath and got her ready to go to sleep. Luckily for us, she wasn't too fussy trying to go to sleep in a "new place" and went right to sleep. Saturday was another story though...
Her fourth tooth had just busted through a few days earlier, but we could tell that another one was right behind it. So she was a little fussy on Saturday, not to mention drooling all over the place. This also posed another problem - she didn't want to go right to sleep when we put her down. We tried to put her down for her morning nap, and she wasn't really having it. After about 10 minutes of some of the loudest crying we've ever heard her make, we both went up to Fi's room to see what the problem was. Well, we found out right away why she was crying so loud... It was because she had pulled herself up and was standing against the side of the crib, screaming directly at the door. Basic acoustics clearly at work. Even though she was crying (for whatever reason), she was so cute to see standing there on her own.
I'll never forget that when I first told my mom about when Mommy B and I caught Alli rolling over in the crib and how we thought it was such a big moment. She replied, "Oh yeah? Just wait until the day you walk in and she's standing there." Well, that moment came this weekend - and it came rolling in like a thunderstorm on a South Carolina beach in July.
We were able to calm Alli down and get her to go to sleep a little later on. However, that afternoon was the same old story. We tried to put her down for her afternoon nap and the same thing happened. She simply did not want to go to sleep and stood at the edge of the crib screaming until we came to get her. The afternoon session was a little worse, and we could tell that her teeth were bothering her. So Dad-E went old-school and held her to my chest and rocked her to sleep. She barely fits there anymore, and my arms get sore from holding her there these days. Makes me sad to think back to the days where she would fall asleep on my chest on a daily basis.
Mommy B and Mama G took that opportunity to have some R&R time with each other while the kids slept and Papa Rob and I stayed home. Well, about 20 minutes after they left for the salon, Alli woke up after being asleep for not even 45 minutes. Needless to say, all the rocking I did didn't help much - the teething prevailed.
After getting out a couple teething-poops (those parents out there who's kid hasn't started teething yet will know what I mean soon), Alli was back to her normal self. She was great the rest of the afternoon and went right to sleep that evening. Amazing what a good crap can do for you. I guess she does take after me after all...
Sunday came and so did Alli's 5th tooth. It finally broke the surface and Mommy B felt it with her finger that afternoon. Luckily we dashed back to Chucktown at the right time and Alli slept for a good part of the drive. Mommy B and I joked that night about how this was the beginning of a new era - when Alli is able to pull herself up the side of the crib and stand on her own. Even though the last couple of days had been because she was crying, it made me so proud to see that she had figured out not only how to pull herself up using the bars on the crib but also to prop herself against the side so she could stand on her own.
So let's recap real quick - Alli is 8 months old today. She now has five teeth that have broken the surface and are coming in quickly. We have a feeling that number six might not be far behind... as they seem to be coming in weekly now. She's been crawling consistently for a few weeks and just recently starting pulling herself up to stand on her own. At this rate, she'll be walking in a week or so and have a full set of baby teeth by the end of the summer.
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