Pulled Up to Stand

Calliope pulled herself up to standing yesterday!

Very exciting news.

She's been able to stand (holding on) for months now, but to be able to get there by herself is so much more fun.

She's also been cruising, slowly and tentatively but with great enthusiasm, for several days.

Having her on the prowl is, of course, a lot more work for me, and it will only increase as she gets faster. But so far, I'm loving it, because I feel like another micro-layer of her personality has been exposed, like pulling back a layer of skin on an onion. Now that she's mobile, I can see where she actually wants to go. As opposed to merely tolerating wherever I put her.

And how lovely that often the place she wants to go is to ordinary old me. Turns out that my arms are one of her favorite destinations. My feet are also very popular, as is tunneling between my legs. It's a wonderful feeling to be someone's favorite place to be!

I worked from home today, an extremely rare occurrence for a health care provider with full time direct patient contact! But I had to do this loathsome tasks of getting up to do date on all my privacy and billing credentialing, so my boss offered to let me work from home.

It was so fun to get to be here and see Calliope all day, to take breaks to nurse her and comfort her after tumbles. And I finished early so we went to the playground together while Nastya stayed behind with sleeping Eleanor.

We took the bus to our favorite sort-of-nearby playground. There is a great water structure there that's just right for babies her age. A very tiny fountain and great puddles for splashing, with no water deeper than a half an inch, so absolutely no risk of drowning or getting seriously hurt. It wasn't that warm when we arrived, and a bit windy, but that didn't deter Calliope from getting right to business with some serious splashing. She also had a great time on the play structure, which has steps that are only a few inches tall. Now that she can pull herself up, she was able to conquer those steps for the first time. Such exciting developments! Will there ever be such a fun and miraculous time in her life?

In other news... I kept meaning to tell all of you about our sleep backsliding. So after I finally did sleep training, Calliope started waking up earlier and earlier. Like 5:30 am. I would nurse her and pray desperately that she would go back to sleep... but she never did. Until one day she woke up at 5:15, I nursed her, and lo and behold, she was asleep against me. I gratefully and ever so carefully slid her back into the crib, and jumped back into bed for a few minutes of shut eye.

So that seemed good, right? Extra sleep?

But then that feeding started to creep earlier and earlier. Still, if it was 4:30 am, but I got another 60-90 minutes of sleep, all good, right?

And then Calliope got sick. And she started waking up really early. At, like, 3:30 am. And a couple of times, she woke up twice. Just for a two minute nursing.

Yesterday, Calliope was feeling much, much better. Still congested, for sure, but not sick anymore. She ate tons of yogurt for dinner (she has rejected nearly all other solids while she's been sick, like, 100% rejected, refused to open her mouth, cried if I kept trying... I already decided I am not willing to make food a battlefield), but then nursed for only a minute or so.

But still.

When she woke up at 12:30 am, I threw in the towel. And refused to get up. Because I realized we are worse than where we started.

So I stayed in bed, listening to her cry. For forty-five minutes.

Finally I got up. Retrieved her from the crib. Rocked and sang, standing by the crib, our good night song, You Are My Sunshine (inspired by Jen DDS). She calmed somewhat. I put her back in the crib.

She screamed.

I retrieved my pillows and traveled wearily to the living room. Her cries lessened almost immediately. I think she was back to sleep within fifteen minutes at the most.

And she slept until 7 am. Approximately 90 minutes later than she has slept in months.

Have I mentioned how desperately I am looking forward to having our own bedrooms in the new apartment???