Ferber-izing the Birdie

As you can see, Luna started solid food this week. The first day was a bit rough (and extra messy), but we've all gotten the hang of it now. Mama found her some smaller spoons and learned to take Luna's clothes off before feeding to avoid excessive laundry, and Luna has learned to eat properly and swallow. She has taken to it like a natural (hardly surprising seeing how much her parents love to eat), and screams if I don't shovel it in fast enough. She also enjoys holding the spoon herself and licking the excess off her bib. Videos and photos from the first day of feeding her can be found here.

Our biggest challenge this past week has been sleep. Luna all of a sudden began to hate sleep - she wouldn't nap for more than a few minutes at a time. One day she went 16 hours without sleep! Between that and the ongoing vomiting, she got pretty cranky. Everything we tried to get her peacefully into the land of Nod ended in hysterical screaming. And so, eventually, we realized we'd have to let her cry even though we hated the very thought. We've been using a modified version of the Ferber method for three days now, and things are greatly improved. She is napping again, and there is usually 5 minutes or less of crying when we put her down to sleep. She has been waking up more and more frequently during the night, but we'll tackle one problem at a time I guess. According to the official Ferber method, your supposed to kiss them goodnight, give a few reassuring pats, and then walk away. I can't bring myself to do that. We are still doing the little bedtime ritual of nursing and butt patting until she is asleep and then gently lowering her into the crib. She always wakes up when we lay her down, but at least she is sleepy before we leave the room. It seems to be working for us. But let me tell you - there have been a lot of tears in this household the past few days, and only half of them are Luna's!

Luna has been rolling over more and more frequently this week, and she has discovered her toes. She takes great pleasure in pulling her toes up to her mouth to chew on them. She has also begun losing her hair, quite a lot later than expected. She's got a couple of nearly bald patches! We've been encouraging her to play while propped up in a sitting position to help her strengthen those tummy muscles, and its quite amusing to see her propped in the middle of the pillows like a princess on her throne.