Ahhhh, Sucker!

January 10, 2011

Right from the beginning, I knew Caleb would be a soother baby.

He'd make sucking motions with his mouth, even when his belly was full. He'd suck on his little fist. He'd be comforted by blankets touching his lip, and he'd suck on that too.

However, I've always tried to avoid soothers. For the first couple weeks, I was adamant about not giving in, even though I knew that it might be something he needed. Nathan never had one and he was perfectly content. But every baby is different and we found that Caleb would cry and cry until someone would pick him up.

In addition to that, from the first day we arrived in Brisbane, Caleb hated sitting in the car seat. He would cry and wail until his face was red and his voice went raspy. The poor little guy. And there was nothing I could do while we were driving to console him. I knew we'd have to drive around a lot for the next little while as we got things together, so in the middle of the baby section at KMart, I found a pacifier, grabbed it and desperately convinced Andrew that we had to get it, and that it was the answer to our problems.

And I was right.


Now our little guy is consolable and happy as a clam.

I still try to keep his soother-usage to a minimum though. Generally, when we're in a situation where we can use other methods to sooth him (i.e., when we're not in a car stuck in traffic or when we're in a quiet building and we can't leave right away), I don't let him have it. And Caleb's perfectly fine with that.