To suck…or not to suck?…That, is the question.
One thing we’ve learned as new parents, from the actual delivery through to bringing our son home, is that the best made plans are…
Don’t make plans!
As far as our birthing plan went, the only things that went to plan, was the music we had playing during the labour and the fact that…a baby came out at the end. Everything else…went straight out the window.
Same at home. Many is the night we wailed away over the virtues of what good parenting should be all about, and we both agreed…we didn’t want our child to have a dummy.
That is, until…we actually had a child.
Fast forward to 2:30am on Indy’s first night at home (aka: my first night at all, with him). Not since the Spanish Inquisition, has more houses been upturned and lives been uprooted. Like King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail, I left no box unturned, no cupboard unrifled, no garage unpillaged…all for the sake of peace, harmony and to…just make it stop! Suddenly there it was. The elusive grail was within my grasp…
I knew we had one somewhere. Like the Incredible Hulk forcing his way against rippling sonic blast cannons, I pushed through the noise and popped the dummy in Indy’s mouth. And there it was…
Hello darkness my old friends, Simon and Garfunkle with…The Sound Of Silence.
Finally, we could relax and get some sleep…except for Super Dad. Who, torn between the angst of giving into the dummy and the salvation of silence, stood over the bassinet until 4:30am! Checking and rechecking from every possible angle. Measuring each gap with lasers, a slide rule and vernier callipers.
Anything, just to make sure there was no way on earth our tiny miracle would suffocate on the dummy. Making sure it didn’t cover both nostrils and there was adequate space between his nose and lip to breathe. Last thing I want to do is give into the dummy and then be responsible for suffocating my only child!
But that’s something I’m sure all first time Dad’s go through.
Isn’t it?
Look on the bright side, that’s one night down…the rest of my life to go!!
LMAO lol lol lol lol lol lol
LOL! We never wanted to use a dummy either but discovered our son was a ‘sucker’ as I call them and just had to suck all that time. It was either going to be on a dummy or me! Now that he’s just turned 2 (and still has a dummy I might add – though i did try to take it away at 4mths when it’s reccommended. instead of his sleep getting better it progressivly got worse and worse over 5 days so gave it back) Ive actually come to realize the dummy has been a blessing (we’ve only used it for sleeping except on very rare occasions when teething or very sick). We were able to take our son out for late nights when he was over 1 (and therefore doesnt go to sleep easily if out and about just because it’s bedtime like a young baby will do) and when it got to be his bedtime we were able to stick him in the pram pop a dummy in and he’d chill right out (may or may not fall asleep). All my friends bubs the same age who didnt take a dummy or gave it up for thumb sucking would end up over tired and agitated at the same events/places as our son and would end up crying and carrying on.
Well that helps soothe my concerns too, thanks Gwen 🙂