The nurses went, "Awww, look! She's already self soothing! That is wonderful." I on the other hand, began having a panic attack inside. "NOOOOO!!! My child can't be a thumbsucker!! How do I stop this from happening!!??!" You see, I'm a teacher. And this past year I had the most adorable student ever who unfortunately had a terrible time breaking the habit of sucking his thumb. In first grade. When I was a baby, I took a paci. And after a year or so, that paci had to fly out the window to go live with another baby. Yes, I was devastated at the time. But I don't remember any of it and I got over it. So of course, this was going to happen with my own daughter. I had it all planned out. She'd take the paci. I'd let her use it until she was 2 and then it would fly out the window.
Are we noticing a theme on this blog yet? The theme of my current life?? I want to control everything. Instead, I control nothing. Since the day of her arrival, my sweet pea has challenged my desire for her to use a paci by insisting she is going to be a thumbsucker. I clung to the thought that the hospital thumb sucking incident was a fluke up until oh, maybe last week. I spent loads of money on different pacifiers until I found one she would take sometimes. But I was still convinced I could change her.
I keep showing her this picture and talking about how cute she is with the paci.
She just pushes it away. So rude.
In the last few weeks, she's become insistent on sucking her fist. Yep, not her thumb, her entire fist. This was mostly because she couldn't find her thumb. But she is my daughter. And therefore, there was no giving up. So try as she might, she has now won the battle of the fist and her thumb has been fighting its way into her mouth.
And while I'm still against it, I've conceded to the fact that this, like most everything else, I clearly cannot control.
I'll even admit, just this once, it really is the cutest thing ever.
I was sucking my thumb in the womb and have a scare on my lip to prove it! Also, I sucked my thumb for MANY MANY years after that, I was like that 1st grader you were talking about haha good luck! ;)
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