…Holden doesn’t have it.
In fact, he is quite good at identifying the various nipples presented to him on any given day. And shunning all of them but the two attached to me. Half the time he even laughs in the process, because he’s just a little bit sadistic. For a baby.
Yes, it matters.
When Hutch was born we gave him his soother the first day in the hospital, and he took to it instantly. It was basically pure heaven.
However, despite the knowledge that he would almost always be immediately calmed by popping one of those little lovelies in his mouth, I never shook the suspicion that it was part of my problem with nursing him. Also, at 2.5 years old, Hutch is still obsessed with his soother and literally—LITERALLY—won’t sleep without one. As in, he never has. Not one nap or nighttime sleep in his entire life. While it’s nice to have that sure-fire way of knocking him out, it’s also awful to be so tied down to it. I can’t count the number of late-night pharmacy runs I’ve made in a panic because Hutch is wailing (or more often, lately, just whining really annoyingly) for his soo soo, with none to be found.
Also, at his dentist checkup this morning (NO CAVITIES!) we learned his soother obsession has affected his teeth and though the damage will self correct, it only does so if the soother is trashed by age 3. I don’t relish the thought of orthedenture, but even so, this is a fight I’m just not ready to face.
Holden, on the other hand, only takes a soother maybe 25% of the times he’s offered one. And of that, half the time it falls out mid-suck and makes him angry. So if I did the math correctly (never a guarantee mind you), we have about a 12.5% success rate, soother-wise. Definitely not the 100% I’ve come to expect from children within my care.
However—and here’s some good news—Holden is now officially EBF (exclusively breast fed). This is exciting for me since it’s been my goal for both boys from day one, but never fully achieved with Hutchy. A lot of factors have come into play to make this possible (truly a whole post on its own), but I can’t help wondering if waiting a few days to give Holden a soother might have played a part in our breastfeeding success.
Who knows, really.
What I do know is that, as Hutch says, “Ho’den don’t want his soo soo,” and since he pretty much refuses to fall asleep or stay asleep without a nipple in his mouth, my own personal God-made soothers are certainly taking the brunt of his preference.
Just one of the many joys of motherhood.
