Pacifier

While most babies consider pacifier as their comfort in going to sleep, my baby doesn't. My baby sucks his thumb whenever he's about to sleep. I take his sucking differently. I'm assuming that he's still not satiated or that he's already full and wants to burp but doesn't know how to deal with it so he takes comfort in sucking his thumb. When you try to get his thumb out of his mouth he would whine.

Last night, he fell asleep very early, as early as around six in the evening. By around eight he half awoke and automatically sucked his thumb, a very clear sign that he was hungry. So I bottle-fed him his formulated milk. After a while, he let go of the bottle, moved to his side and sucked his thumb. I tried feeding him again and he took the milk.. Then, he moved again to his other side and sucked again his thumb. When I tried feeding him again, this time he didn't take it and still continued to sucked his thumb. So, I scooped him up and carried him in my arms his head on my shoulder. I was actually hoping that he would burp and if not at least he would feel better because he might have been full already. After a while with sleepy eyes, I put him back to bed. He continued to sucked his thumb. Uncertain of what to do and afraid of the notion that his thumb-sucking might affect his teeth or that he might make it a habit, I resorted to his long-kept pacifier.

With his eyes half-closed, I inserted to his mouth the nipple of his pacifier. Instead of making him fall asleep, the pacifier made him awake. He wasn't comfortable falling asleep with it. He toyed it. Holding the ring attached to it, he bit the nipple like a teether. Now, his eyes were already wide open and was amused by the rubber nipple that made him kept biting it. Since he was still sleepy, he just lied still and scrutinized the pacifier, biting it once in  a while.

Pacifier isn't new to him. He had it during his newborn days. However, we set it aside the moment he showed no intention of using it. I can still remember an instance when I put the pacifier to his mouth, he immediately got it and throw it aside, as in literally throw it swiftly like telling me "I don't like it!". This is why his pacifier has long been set aside. From then on, I have been holding on to my understanding whenever he sucks his thumb. That's why when I gave it to him last night, he somehow considered it something new to him.

Back to my experience last night, the pacifier had kept him awoke for a while. When he was sleepy again, he let go of his pacifier and sucked again his thumb. I decided to let him do it until he would fall asleep then I would try to get out his thumb and bottle-fed him again. Who knows, my understanding of his thumb-sucking might still holds true. When your a mother, dealing with your baby would really have to be a trial and error method because every baby is unique. True enough, when he had fallen asleep with his thumb in his mouth, I replaced his thumb with the nipple of his bottled-milk and he took it. After a while, he moved to his side and fell deep asleep, this time without his thumb. Hence, he was already very much sated.

Well, with what happened  I can really say now that pacifier doesn't work with my baby. :-)