My baby likes to suck. The damage she has done to 'the girls' is evidence. Right from the beginning she would elicit reactions from the nurses, other moms & lactation consultants whenever I nursed her, they would say "she's a little piggy," or "wow listen to her suck." Yup I am one of the lucky ones.
Up until now I have hesitated to give her a soother, I'm not totally sure why, perhaps in fear that she might change her approach to my breast (?) or that we become totally dependant on this little device & will never ever be able to wean her off of it...imagine what the other kids will say, oh the teasing she'll take...or that her teeth will grow in all crooked...OK so maybe I am being a little overprotective, is that the word? Paranoid? I've adapted to this mother role quite nicely haven't I?
We recently discovered the power of the suck, how it will help put the baby to sleep in 5 minutes & all this time we have been holding, swinging, bouncing her for 10, 15, 20 minutes at a time only to put her down, have her wake up again & start over again. But we were faced with another dilemna with the sucking strategy (pre-soother): aside from being attached to the kid, you can only let the baby suck on your finger for so long before you loose all circulation. If baby is not asleep by the time you have to pull your wrinkly finger out of her mouth you must pick her up & hold, swing, bounce her for another 20 minutes & the finger sucking efforts were a waste of time & now you have a sore finger (it is true that Rodd feels much sympathy for my nipples after letting her suck on his finger.
And because my baby likes to suck I have come to the conclusion that she will inevitably end up with a soother (I am sure there are ways around this, but then I suspect everything else will be in her mouth instead). So at her sixth week, during a very fussy episode, we introduced the soother, & vowed it would be only used as a last resort so my baby does not become addicted to this thing. At first she stuck her toungue our & made a sour face, as to say "what the heck is this & why are you putting it in my mouth," followed by a repeated act, but charmingly, she took it on the third attempt. After discovering that this rubbery thing is not so bad, Scarlett took to sucking, even chomping on her beloved soother. The last couple days have been a learning process, not to suck too hard so that the soother goes shooting out of her mouth. She has since has learned to keep it in her mouth for periods of time, that is of course after many efforts by mom & dad to pick it up, wash it off & put it back in her mouth (& again, we become parents, as this is the beginning of picking up after our baby girl). Today she fell asleep with it & when I tried to take it out, she resisted with all her sleepy might, revealing a big ring around her mouth.
Now my sucking fears have subsided & I have decided that perhaps this soother thing isn't so bad. She seems to like it. & until she figures out how to wail that ear piercing wail with a soother in her mouth, I guess I like it too.
I've been told some babies like to suck. Mine is one of them.
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