Prague Blog #7 - the last one!

Okay, so reality check...thus far, you're probably thinking that our trip was a blissful adventure that went off without a hitch. The reality is that while parts of the trip were great fun, it is no picnic traveling with an infant and having to worry about their needs in a strange place when your spouse is committed elsewhere during the day. Our hotel room was spacious by European standards, but no one room is big enough to provide the quiet, privacy a little guy needs to sleep soundly, so none of us slept very well at night while we were away. We tried different bed times (adjusting to our new time zone) but never found a formula that worked for Finley and Monday night (3rd night we were there), Finley's first tooth appeared! Dan and I joked this would happen the week before we left, but let me tell you--it was no joke! Finley was clearly uncomfortable and while baby tylenol provided some relief, the combination of a sharp tooth pushing through his gums and have to sleep in a strange place made the whole nighttime situation rather unbearable. We couldn't let him "cry it out" like we've done at home in the past since at the hotel we had neighbors through the walls. Surprisingly, he was quite happy-go-lucky in the daytime hours despite his lack of sleep at night! He napped fairly well and it became clear after a couple days, that we needed to stick close to the hotel for at least one if not both of his naps to make up for the nighttime gap. Needless to say, Finley and I spent a great deal of time in our hotel room playing in the air conditioning or both of us napping. I also spent some quality time outside in the hallway so he could sleep without any distractions. When we'd put him down at night after coming back from dinner, we'd try and hang out in the hall until he'd been asleep for at least an hour and was definitely out cold. It certainly wasn't how I had imagined spending a week in Prague, but once I accepted our fate, it was not such a hard pill to swallow. Aside from the refusal to sleep more than 2 or 3 hours in a row at night, Finley was an absolute champ during our trip. He napped on the go when necessary, ate up his czech jarred foods we got at the supermarket, played well with his toys or anything else he could roll towards, and smiled at just about everyone he made eye contact with. Time after time, I'd hear someone say "what a great smile" or "what a happy baby" and that made me smile! He flirted with entire teams of women on the shuttle bus and laughed at Dan's teammates while we waited for the tram. It was nice to see him so happy despite being so out of his element.

As I downloaded our pictures today, I realized that I took a zillion photos of Fin on our hotel bed and I realized that made sense because of all the time we spent there :) Finley seemed to LOVE that bed and became a super roly poly going in every direction. He rolled to get toys, rolled to reach one of us, got stuck in the small gap between the two beds, scooted backwards and nearly off the bed! I feel like we ended up with a formal photoshoot of pictures!

Here's a video we took on maybe the 2nd or 3rd day of our trip and it reminded me that we must take more videos now that Finley's so much more active and interactive. More videos to come!!

Much to our joy, Finley finally discovered his own feet! Our little developmental deviant can be a bit slow in reaching his baby milestones, but this one was well worth the wait! It was adorable to see him realize that not only can he reach his feet, but he can grab on and wave them around, and even fit them into his mouth! How adorable :)

Now when he rides in his stroller, he spends most of the ride holding onto his feet and talking away. Finley is officially babbling in that uniquely baby way and I can't wait to get a video of him going on and on and on!

I'll leave you with this very memorable family moment from our trip. Since our hotel room came with a shower and not a tub, we had to bathe Finley in our sink. It was such a good idea in theory, but right after we plopped him, we discovered a flaw in our plan because Finley quickly realized he could add more water by lifting the faucet handle!! Yikes!! We both laughed and then Finley joined in, so cute! So Dan had to not only hold up Finley in the sink, but hold down the faucet :) while I soaped him up. We gave him three sinks baths and got pretty good at it by the end, but I wouldn't say they were the most productive, cleansing baths...oh well, having fun was more fun!

The trip overall was a good learning experience and I suspect we won't take another big adventure for a while, so I'm glad we did it. Thankfully, Dan's taking off this week as well for a family stay-cation, which is just what we need!