Ferberizing the Finnster

We are in the process of teaching Finn how to soothe himself to sleep. Basically, you put the baby into bed awake and let the baby go sleep on his own. If the baby cries, the parents are to reassure the baby by going into the baby's room, put your hand on the baby's chest, stay for a minute or two and then leave the room. The parents are to reassure the baby as needed until the baby goes to sleep on his own. This is apparently called the "Ferber Method" and is suppose to help the baby sleep soundly through the night within one week.

Last night was our second night using the "Ferber Method" and it was awful! Finn cried for 45 minutes. Michael and I reassured him several time before he finally drifted off to sleep. I have never heard sounds like that come out of Finn's mouth before. I couldn't help but laugh at his crazy noises over the baby monitor. He woke up once around 3:30. We didn't feed him. Michael went in his room and soothed him and he ended up falling back to sleep within 15 minutes. After that it was smooth sailing - Finn slept until 8:00!

After lunch we all bundled up and went out in the snow. Finn wasn't very impressed, Kodiak was a little timid, and Fannie hated it. Fannie made a B-line to the house the minute her paws hit the snow.

We also attempted to feed Finn some more cereal. He was much more receptive to it. When I would hold the spoon this mouth, he would lean toward the spoon, open his mouth and then lower his mouth onto the spoon. Once the cereal was in his mouth he would smack his lips. I can't be sure if he was swallowing or not. I also wondered if he wasn't really eating, but instead sucking on the spoon. Who knows.

Later in the day we psyched ourselves up to put Finn down for his nap. After the night we had, we were dreading the nap. He did a little bit better. He cried for about 20 minutes before going to sleep. Bedtime was even better. After reading him a book, we put him into his crib and he gurgled for a few minutes. He only fussed for a minute or two before he went to sleep for the evening.

On a more annoying note, unbeknownst to me at the time, I ended up giving Finn a name that is going to be very popular. I was watching "Medium" (my new favorite show) this morning while on the treadmill and one of the characters was named Finn. This is the third Finn I have seen on TV in the past two weeks. I swear!