The Bumbo Series

A Bumbo is a little baby holder upper chair-pod thingy. Hale inherited his from his neighbor Asher. He's taken to it quite nicely.

Family.

This is fun, this thing of collecting (and occasionally making) people to keep around you to call your family. 

We are rich in family.

Marty and Emily hosted a Hale brunch today. Nice.

Marty is a man to be admired. Hale's just doing what comes natural.

Marty snapped a couple pictures of la familia nonficción

Oh, and Thanks to Grandma Charlene for the natty matching pinkwear! Yup--Hale's family is cool enough to pull it off.

Sometimes motherhood means being away from the center of the action

This is the last night at the beach cabin with my family. It is one of my favorite nights of the summer, and this year I put Hale to sleep instead of making s'mores. 

Hale and friends

Auntie Jeniffer and Uncle Steve with Hale

Miss Aubrey Bean and Hale with husbands cooking delicious food in the background. 

Miss Kristin and Hale. 

Hale with Grandma Charlene, Grandpa Randy and Cousin Abby

Pop and Son en route to Vashon. 

Cousin Sara who is busy making Hale's newest cousin in her belly right now! 

Hale with cousin Amy Beth (a.k.a. Pie)

Hale with his cousin, Chris. 

Hale cold-chillin' with his cousins, Zach and Zaine, at the beach.

Hale with Grandma Charlene. 

Hale with Grandma Patsy. 

Hale and his buddy, Asher Finn. 

Hale and Carol, his Grandma Patsy's best friend. 

Ferber. Dr. Ferber. We Ferberized. We are Ferberizing.

It wasn't exactly planned. We knew we wanted to try it, but it never seemed like the right time. But then, nothing else worked. All the tricks, pretty much overnight, became futile. The swaddle, the binky, the singing, The Cure lullaby CD, NOT EVEN NURSING was working. Hale's eyebrows were just permanently red tired. 

Scott and I passed him back and forth, walked him around the room in circles for hours, giving one another helpless, tired looks. No sleep. No sleep for any of us.

I didn't put him down in the crib thinking I was ready to Ferberize, but Ferberize we did. Dr. Ferber is this guy who invented sleeping for infants. Seriously. His philosophy, in a nutshell, is kids have to learn to sleep and the only way they learn... is the hard way.

It isn't like we just abandoned him in his crib. There is a whole 'checking in' system--first after 5 minutes, then 10, then 15, etc. Basically, you check and see if your child is still alive to look at you while he screams as if he is being exorcised right before your eyes (a tiny Linda Blair that resembles you)....

...Then, according to the book, you say to him, "Good job, honey, you are doing great. You are teaching yourself to go to sleep. I love you. Good night." And then you walk out the door till the next 'check-in interval'.

It was hell. I kept thinking about how my sister tried this with my nephew, Josh, and the neighbors called CPS. True Story.

I am really glad we know our neighbors so well. I spent the time, that first night of Hale wailing, reading Amazon reviews of the book we are using as our guide for this whole thing, "The Sleepeasy Solution." (Five stars all the way, except for the few who feel leaving your child to be exorcised in their crib alone in the name of sleep is the work of 'lazy parents' who know nothing about tribal cultures who never even set their children down let alone let them scream in a crib. This book is not by the actual Ferber, but presents a fairly accessible version of the whole Ferberizing, you know, thang.) 

I really thought about not setting my baby down. Quechua babies in Ecuador are so sweet and quiet, wrapped in blankets against their moms' backs, but I have no field to till nor corn to shuck. I need my hands for the gear shift as well as for my travel mug.

So, following the Ferber prescription, we let him shriek, wail, and flail about his crib for a whole hour--to the minute--and then... 

...quiet. 

Hale slept so sweetly, so sweetly till 2:30 in the morning, only barely waking to be nursed right back to sleep. Then, he didn't make a peep again until after 9 am. The next night, when he slept eleven straight hours after only minor cries, we were pretty much in awe of Dr. Ferber.

Tonight (night six) he went down after 20 minutes of fussing, but let me also say that his nap schedule seems to be becoming more predictable and easy as well. Instead of nursing, rocking and singing with fingers crossed, just in the past few days, we just kiss him, tell him we love him and set him down in that crib. He sleeps, sweetly. Then he wakes up and doesn't seem mad at us in the least. In fact, he spazzes with excitement to see us. It is pretty great.

Dr. Ferber, thank you, where ever you are.
Love,
One of those lazy modern-ferberizing parents

Ferber or Sears

A New Blast of Young Hale True

Reading. The Natural Snack.

Hale took a train to visit Eleanor

Hale got a fever, which we kinda figured wasn't a big deal, but on account of he's a preemie, they asked us to bring him into the ER so they could have a look-see. 

He was fine. It was a long night, and he got a lot of pretty unpleasant stuff done to him that he hated, loudly, but he was fine. Didn't even have to give him antibiotics. Just a little spot of Tylenol drops is all. 

They do a good job over there at Group Health, even in the middle of the night. 

Amy's namesake niece, Amy, holding Hale for the first time. This was actually taken before the hospital picture above...

...as was this one of Hale with Chris--right before Hale infected the whole family with the Crud he had. 

Congrats are in order for Chris, by the way, as he just graduated with his GED. Congratulations Chris!

You might not be able to see Amy in the rearview, but she's there, and this is another family portrait. Three. It's a magic number.

Put up yer dukes.

Seattle Center visit. Feeding Hale under a tree. 

Hale's wearing an outfit here that I wore when I was christened, sometime in 1967. Pretty dang cute. 

As our life gets more and more like our life, and less and less like some crazy amusement park ride, for whatever reason it's become harder to keep on top of Hale's blog.

We are enjoying him so much, as we learn more and more every day who this kid is. Hale is a sweet, sweet boy. Since he started smiling a couple weeks ago, he pretty much hasn't stopped, and every little grin and giggle is thrilling.

He's making it pretty easy on us in the eating and sleeping departments as well. He is still as content to eat from the bottle as he is from the boob, which is of course hugely convenient--it means Amy can do things from time to time, that Hale gets to bond with his dad over a shared joy (eating) and that his grandmothers can feed him too. Great stuff. Huge blessing.

Sleeping is coming easier as we get better at reading Hale's cues. It's not unusual for him to sleep four hours at a whack, and the getting up to feed and putting back down are pretty chill exercises as well. I guess we're all getting used to each other a bit, finding rhythms and stuff. Feels good.

(Of course, as soon as we start bragging about how not-all-that-bad it's going, he'll bust out a night of three hours' crying before bed, followed by a series of 45 minute naps through the night, just to teach us about parental hubris.)

Grandma Smackdown (or, for Hale's older readers: Dueling Gandmas). 

Hale seems to like both of these ladies real good. Can't imagine why! I mean, apart from all the singing and cooing and rocking and humming and cuddling and endless patience with the crying and the steady practiced hands and the timeless perspective and all... what's there to like about a grandma? 

Hale went for his first visit to his paternal grandparents' place, up in Skagit county. The neighbors, good family friends, turned out in force. 

Callie made us and Hale a super cute scrapbook of the pictures we've taken to date. It was a surprise, and was about the sweetest thing in the whole freaking world. Thanks Callie! What an amazing gift.

There are six kids in this family and they're all kind and open and interested. And curious about Hale.