Thumb sucking

Is it better for a baby to suck a pacifier, thumb or nothing at all (does that ever happen?). It is an age old question isn't it? I guess not older than when pacifiers were introduced. Corn cobs were actually used like a pacifier a long time ago and then a sugar-rag and then in the early 1900s something resembling our current day pacifier was introduced. Ok, back to the subject at hand. I feel like when you mention thumb sucking people always cringe. You've heard that if you have a thumb sucking kid he/she is doomed to be ridiculed in school. This is because thumb sucking won't ever stop and no one wants a 4th grader who sucks their thumb. Or his/her teeth will be horribly disfigured. I myself don't especially like the idea of a dirty hand (or thumb in this case) being put in to the mouth. That being said EVERYTHING right now seems to be aimed for the mouth... my fingers, my phone, any toy, burp clothes, shirt collars during diaper changes... seriously nothing is off limits. I'm pretty sure his thumb is going to be one of only many things that will introduce germs.

As you can guess by now Nate has found his thumb. At first it was only a thumb suck here or there. Sometimes, even still, he sucks on his whole fist and not just the thumb. The thumb sucking definitely is his soothing mechanism. He falls asleep sucking his thumb about 50% of the time during naptime. Naptime is still a new thing so the kinks are being worked out. He is a pretty good self soother, in part because of this thumb sucking. He wakes up on occasion during the night, but quickly puts himself back to sleep. Lately, he has been sleeping from whenever we put him to bed (7-9pm) until about (5-6am) so something is working!

Nathaniel likes pacifiers too, but only the green kind that were from the hospital (soothies). These don't have anywhere to tie a clip so they just fall on the floor when he spits them out. Due to this I haven't really used them that much because I have to hold them the whole time. The thumb is easier. I figure there are many many phases so I have time to change the thumb sucking to pacifiers if I need to or want to change things up. Once he can grab the pacifier himself when he drops it we can reconsider. That is even if we want to reconsider, but maybe, what do I know? This is a subject I'm reading about on occasion and just like everything else baby related there are a million different viewpoints. I do think the self soothing is a win right now so I'm letting nature take its course.

Naptime

Wasn't trying to take this video (you'll hear me in the background)

but I thought his smile was pretty cute so I kept it anyway.