I find myself in a love-hate relationship at the moment with the dummy. It makes my life easier in some desperate moments, but equally terribly miserable some other times. Let me explain to you why...
It all started a couple of weeks after he was born, in one of those nights when there was nothing I could do to stop him crying.
Even before I had him I knew I wasn't going to be one of those moms, you know, the ones that use the dummy as a cork to quiet my boy. I would totally understand what he needed and calmly work things out with him. No way; no child of mine would ever use it, ever I say! How deluded was I?!
So on that particular night I found it, hidden away between the toys on the shelf, the dummy I got as a present and I promised never to use.
I was desperate, I would have even accepted an exorcism if it meant it would make him stop crying. So I crumbled and gave it to him, and it was love at first sight! Suddenly the room was quiet, and I could here the snoring of my husband (over the ringing of my ears). And so it began...
Sometimes I gave it to him to make him fall asleep, sometimes he would spit it out and I knew he was hungry. It was my safety blanket when out and about because I knew if things got out of control I would stop all the looks from other customers at the coffee shop with it. The dummy made everything better. It was magic... It was love!
But then, without me even realising it, it got out of control! I would use it every time all the time, and my baby would ask for it all the time too! I couldn't, for the love of me, make him go to sleep without it.
And then it started... The hate.
He would wake up at night crying for it. He wasn't hungry or needing a nappy change, he just didn't know how to go back to sleep without it. I would give it to him, he would then go back to sleep and I would go back to bed only to hear it falling from his mouth and knowing I would have to get up again, and again... And again...
I used to play with the idea that I had mental powers. That if I thought about it strong enough the dummy would stay in his mouth for another 20 minutes but it would never work.
Now here I am, at 4am in bed after I have given him the dummy, knowing that I will have to go to his room soon because I have heard it fall; hoping that he will grow out of it so don't have to go through the "letting him cry himself to sleep" tactic...
So let me ask you, is it Love or is it Hate?
I've also ended up doing so many things as a mum that I said I would never do. The dummy thing is not one of them though. I must say I don't really understand what's the big deal about dummies. I think if it works for you, use it. It worked like magic with my first one but not so much with the second one. Hope your baby grows out of this phase soon and you'll get a good night's sleep. x
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I don't know why I care so much. How did you do to get your first one to stop using it? Did he just suddenly stop or did you have to go through the process? x
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