Little star

"Why are you laughing, Mom? And by the way, have you seen my last puff?"

Feeling festive, and serious, at the "Spirit of Shrewsbury" parade on Sunday.



Discovering a new use for the swing.

Teething tyke

We've entered a new phase with our little one--teething! Perhaps Henry's been teething for a while now--the copious amounts of drool and incessant chewing would seem to indicate this--but it's only now that we have some proof. A sharp little protrusion on his lower gums. It's difficult to actually see the tooth at this point, but my rather intimate relationship with his gums allowed me to be the second to know. Henry knew first, of course. He gave us some hints by fussing and crying somewhat inexplicably. Plus, Henry often chews on my fingers, and I felt a little something poking up yesterday when he bit down. That would explain some of the increased night-waking as well, I think. Since this weekend the sleeping has been settling back to normal. Henry's pretty much been going down at his usual 7:30 and waking up sometime between 4 and 6 for a brief feeding and then back down until around 7. I'm relieved that it appears we're making our way back to quality nighttime sleep. And daytime sleep...let me tell you, that has taken a wonderful turn for the better. The past week, Henry's been taking longer and longer naps, and going down for them without a fight. Yesterday I even had time to: read a book (Anna Karenina! smart, huh?); make a pie (apple. it only came out so-so); prepare lots of home made baby food (yams, broccoli, pears, and peas. a veritable garden extravaganza); clean up all of my kitchen messes; and even take a nap myself (which felt quite delicious). I could get used to this napping routine. Especially considering the torment that previously constituted Henry's napping. Until this week, naps had been inconsistent, brief, and often required my presence (co-napping). Keep up the good work, Henry!

I think Henry was feeling camera shy today. Maybe a little uncertain about allowing me to capture a glimpse at his shiny new speck of a tooth.

His little duck often bears the brunt of Henry's teething angst.

Here he is, apparently surprised to find me standing there with a camera all of a sudden. Naturally, he was chewing on his gate.

Back to basics

Keep your fingers crossed for us, dear readers. We may be embarking upon re-Ferberization.
Already? Yes, already. Henry was a little off in the sleep department the past few nights, and last night we undeniably broke the rules in our responses to him. In fact, we broke the rules in a way we haven't done in about five and a half months. We brought him in bed with us. This is almost as surprising as our decision to Ferberize in the first place. But, our desperate measures appear to have succeeded in helping Henry's aunt and uncle, our first sleep over guests, sleep relatively well. Either that or they lied to us and they were up all night like we were. Jess and Tim, if you did lie, thanks; I'd rather believe that you slept well. Regardless, Henry's experienced a little sleep regression, but tonight it's back to tough love. No co-sleeping for the g-unit this evening. I think we'll all be happier that way.

Jess and Tim needed their sleep before their big walk today. And when I say big, I mean big. Marathon big. They walked the full route of the Boston Marathon as part of the Jimmy Fund Boston Marathon walk. And they weren't alone. They were joined by my brother and his girlfriend, as well as countless others who took part in the event. Having run two marathons myself, I absolutely can't imagine the pain involved in walking 26.2 miles. However, they did a fabulous job and I hope they're resting comfortably now. Brian, Henry, my parents and I joined the intrepid four, three miles from the finish. It was a lovely day for the walk. Henry was a trooper during his first trip to the big city. He rode the subway for the first time, people-watched during the walk, and was otherwise happy all day. After the walk he showed off his new skills to his Nonnie and Pops (my parents). Henry was so sad to see them go, he kept looking for them after they left our house. Even his dinner of fruity chicken puree could not deter Henry from looking longingly at the back door.

Here we are before a donut and coffee run Saturday morning. Mmmmm.
At the trail head after a scenic stroll with Aunt Jess and Uncle Tim.
With Nonnie and Pops before our walk.

Good times for the g-unit

Henry and I have had a very nice week, with lots of fun activities. On Tuesday, we went to our first "Baby and Me" story time at the local library. Henry was one of the youngest there, but he did seem to enjoy it. The story time involved lots of songs and movement, two books, some parachute play, and bubbles. Ever the sensitive baby, Henry got a little spooked by the parachute play when bells were placed on top of the parachute and jingled with the kids' movements. The kind librarian swiftly modified the activity to a more quiet version of play. Ahh, Henry. Wednesday included a trip to play with my friend Lauren and her son Oliver. Henry can't keep up with Oliver just yet, but I'm sure he'll have a blast chasing after him as soon as he can. In the meantime, I was happy to have some time with Lauren, and Henry seemed to have fun watching Oliver and having some cute interactions with him. Today Henry had a special visit from his grampa Gemborys while I had a doctor's appointment. It sounded like Henry tried to convince grampa that it was okay to sample a new variation on one of his favorite delicacies--shoes and shoelaces--but grampa didn't fall for it. Afterwards, Henry and I jaunted off to the local Y for some swim time. Our class was canceled, but the instructor said we could go and swim without her, so we met our mom/baby buddies there and splashed around for a while.

Before meeting up with Lauren on Wednesday, Henry and I enjoyed a very special breakfast with Brian. Brian was home for the morning before going on a company golf outing, so we seized the opportunity to make a trip to one of our favorite local diners. Henry sat like a big boy in a high chair, which we found adorable. Even more so when the waitress brought over a little hat for Henry to wear.


Henry was apparently very hungry at breakfast. When his daddy tried showing him what fun it is to color, Henry became quite excited...to eat the crayon.




Here's Henry's assessment of the new gate on the playroom. I think it goes something like "come on, mom, don't fence me in."

And another cute video of Henry chatting.

Adventures in Ferberizing

Chalk another one up to the list of things I never thought I'd do as a parent, but have already done in a mere six months' time. Ferberizing! Gasp!!

After reading the 2006 edition of "How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems," I felt like I understood Ferber's method of sleep training in a way that I'd previously misconceptualized. I'd always thought it sounded cruel for everyone involved. But suddenly it sounded appealing. Of course, Henry also helped me and Brian to make this decision. Personally, there were a few reasons why I thought we should make the leap into tough sleep love.

First, Henry continued to need me to put him to sleep. Often he'd fall asleep nursing, but sometimes he'd need to be bounced. Not rocked, but bounced. As he's approaching 20 pounds, the practicalities of this approach have been weighing on me. Literally. Then there was the frustrating process of Henry's wakings during the night. We'd been pretty lucky overall, with him sleeping for large chunks of time. But there were those nights. Those torturous nights when Henry wakes up every two hours and can only be lulled back to sleep by nursing. Frustrating for me, and frustrating for Brian when he futilely attempted to help put Henry back to sleep. A third factor in my reasoning was the fact that Henry had spontaneously fallen asleep a few times in the past week. He fell asleep in a restaurant on the Cape, which was totally out of character for him. And then he put himself back to sleep in the early morning after we heard him playing for a while. So I had reassurance that he was physically capable of this feat. And finally, there are my sleep habits. I've always been a restless sleeper, and can remember hours of lying in bed trying to fall asleep from a very young age. I figure, if I can help Henry to learn how to fall asleep on his own, maybe he'll avoid inheriting my somewhat unhealthy sleep trends.

I held off on posting anything about this until now because...well, I'm not sure why really. I guess I thought it might be a failed experiment, in which case all of my good feelings toward Ferber might go out the window. In summary, though, as of Sunday night, I'd call it a success.
A hard-fought success. No one wants to hear their child cry, no matter how helpful it may be in the long run.

Part One, written on Thursday morning...

Night One:
We began the experiment on Wednesday night. As I write this section of the post, it's Thursday morning. Henry's napping, and I'm drinking coffee. It was a long, hard night. But all in all, probably not as bad as I'd feared. Henry went down in his crib wide awake at 7:35, and cried off and on until he fell asleep around 8:10. During that time, we employed Ferber's progressive waiting method. In a nutshell, you go in to reassure (but not pick up) the baby at increasing intervals of time, beginning with every three minutes. This is designed to help the baby know that he hasn't been abandoned and to be less afraid. The baby knows you're there, but he needs to soothe himself to sleep. After that, Henry was up pretty frequently beginning around midnight. But, he never cried for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Day Two:
As I wrote in the last entry, Henry is napping. He began showing signs that he was tired (rubbing his eyes, etc), so I put him in the crib. He cried, of course, but within fifteen minutes he had put himself to sleep. A miracle! The dogs across the street were barking loudly and woke him briefly, but after a few cries he was back to napping. This is a real landmark event, as naptime has always been the most difficult sleeping issue for Henry.


Part Two, written on Sunday night...

Henry's asleep now, after seven minutes of crying. The seven minutes were excruciating, as all of the crying has been in this process of sleep training. However, each night the amount of crying lessens and Henry soothes himself more quickly. He's also able to soothe himself to sleep for naptime after approximately five to ten minutes. While I am thrilled with this progress, I have to admit that part of me has some lingering doubts about the method. Every time I hear him cry I wonder again if I'm leaving a lasting impression of neglect or abandonment. It's a very short period of time when he's upset, but I hate the thought of any time at all passing without an immediate response. Henry doesn't seem any worse for the wear. He is, in fact, sleeping substantially longer overnight than ever before, and he's been quite a happy camper during the day. After the first night, we only had one occasion when he cried during the middle of the night. Otherwise, he's been soundly sleeping from 7:30 pm until about 5:30 am. Then he nurses and goes back to sleep for another two hours or so. Best sleep we've gotten since the little guy made his arrival into our lives. So hopefully that makes a little crying worthwhile in the long run.

I have been rambling about sleep for far too long now. You're here to see Henry, anyway, so here are some cute videos of his recent developments. He's crawling like a pro, standing up constantly, and babbling in his cute little Henry lingo.

It's a hard knock life for Henry

Watching Henry continue to attempt pulling himself up on every imaginable surface (for example, a shadow on the wall) makes me wonder: How do any of us survive our early attempts to be mobile? By the early hour of 9:30 am I would need both hands to count Henry's daily tally of crashes, bumps, and collisions. But make no mistake, Henry shows absolutely no signs of being deterred from further attempts to stand. So how do I keep him safe? Pad every single hard surface? Catch every fall? Or just keep an eye on him and try to prevent the biggest crashes? It's difficult knowing how to approach this latest phase, which surely portends a lifetime of things to come. I realize with increasing clarity how it's every parents' job to weigh out when to cushion their child's life experiences, and when to let a few bumps and bruises lead the way to learning about life. I guess I should sit back and enjoy this phase of parenting, where these decisions are about as straight-forward and simple as they'll ever be.

Thankfully, we have a new space where Henry can bonk his head in relative safety. At long last, the playroom is complete. Henry and his momma thank Brian for all his hard work on making this finally come to completion! No easy task with a six month old in the house. We're very happy with it, and have been spending lots of time there so far. As a bonus, guests are also welcome to spend lots of time in the playroom--since it doubles as a guest room with futon.

We also took our first family vacation to Cape Cod earlier this week. We had a great time, and I think we learned a great deal about how to vacation with children. Some things I gleaned from the experience:

• Time spent prepping for the trip roughly equals time spent actually vacationing. Planning, packing, doing laundry, etc take on dimensions previously unknown to single travelers. Two day trip, two day prep.
  
• A vehicle that has been otherwise suitable for travel no longer suffices. You need a bus. With extra storage. Maybe a trailer. Seriously, how can a person so small require so much space?
• All those great restaurants on which you used to splurge? Well, most are not so kid friendly. Captain Frosty's, anyone? (really, that's where we went. but believe it or not, it's Zagat rated!)
• Vacation does not equal sleeping in and getting extra rest. Try to explain that one to a six month old.
• And finally, you will have more fun on this vacation than any previous trip. A different kind of fun. A better kind of fun.

Henry's first trip to the beach. For sunset, no less.
Tub time at the house on the Cape, following an especially messy breakfast.
Hanging out with new pal Dora.
Taking a break during a walk on the Cape Cod Rail Trail.
Dining al fresco. Mmmm, squash on the beach.

Splish, splash, and stats

A tuckered out Henry is napping right now, following an event-filled first half of the day. This morning, we took our first parent/child swimming lesson at one of the local YMCAs in the area. It was awesome! Prior to the lesson, I was apprehensive of what Henry might do when submerged in water for the first time. This fear was made worse when Henry began crying the minute we stepped into the pool area. Our sensitive little boy was a little overwhelmed by the echoes and loud noises of other children playing in the pool. However, I soon learned that Henry loves, loves, loves the water. He wasn't sure about the first few seconds in there, but by the end he was splashing around like crazy and was pretty darn smiley. I wish I had video of the event, it was very cute. Today we sang songs, bounced and swayed with the babies, and best of all, went down the slide! The swimming instructor held the babies at the top of the slide and passed them to the moms below in the pool (it was a very short slide). Henry seemed okay with this, but preferred to play around in the water. By the end of the course, Henry will have learned more about being in the water, including how to blow bubbles. I'm already looking forward to next week.

After lunch and a brief nap, Henry's busy day continued at his six-month doctor's visit. He logged in at 19 pounds, 8 ounces and 28.5 inches. For those keeping track (maybe that's just me), he gained over 3 pounds in 2 months. Gotta love those solid foods. Everything else also looks normal and healthy according to the pediatrician. My only concern came at some talk about sleep habits...the dreaded question of whether or not we should be having Henry cry it out to learn to fall asleep independently. Right now, he falls asleep nursing most nights. And if he doesn't, then I bounce him until he drifts off and I can put him down. Otherwise, he cries and becomes escalated to all-out crisis mode wailing very quickly. I've tried doing some transitional type things to help him draw other associations with sleep, a lovey to hold onto and lullaby music playing as he falls asleep. We've also had a consistent, but brief, bedtime routine for quite a while now. But alas, I'm not sure these gentler methods are going to do the trick. Henry likes things to stay the same. Right now he likes his momma to put him to sleep. One of my mom friends just did a modified cry it out method this weekend, and has already seen some very positive changes in her son's sleep habits. So...Brian and I have to make the decision final, but I think we are leaning toward biting the bullet and helping Henry learn how to fall asleep alone through this surely painful but also seemingly successful process. It wouldn't kill him, right?? And it would pay off in the long run when he has good sleep habits, wouldn't it???

Happy 6 Months, Henry!

Yesterday was Henry's six-month birthday. As I think (and write) every month, it's hard to believe he's been with us for this long. It's true what they say about time moving even more quickly once you have children. Henry's been making the most of his half-year status, and has filled the past two days with several new capabilities. The most notable: he pulled himself up to standing today. Twice. This totally blew my mind, because, whoa, this is one step closer to walking! The first time, Henry was in desperate pursuit of the camera in my lap. He crawled toward me, climbed with his little arms up into my lap, and then when I held my hands out to him he grabbed on, rose to his knees, and then stood up! Once he was up, he looked just as startled as I felt. And then he grinned, because he realized he'd done something fun that made his momma smile and cheer him on. The second time he pulled himself up, he was in his crib, supposedly napping. I went upstairs to find him climbing up the bumper, and before I knew it he was on his knees again and then precariously standing. Needless to say, we lowered the crib before bedtime tonight. Henry's also been very enamored of his ability to mimic and make new sounds the past few days. He finds it quite funny to have a conversation of matching sounds. And I love it, too, of course. Here are some photos and video from the past two days.

Practicing sitting up on his own:


Playing new favorite Peek-a-boo game with mom:

Looking like a big boy:
"Napping." Right. That's how naps go these days. (taken prior to the lowering of the crib)