before cedar was born, i had pretty firmly decided we would not be using a soother. neither my husband or myself used one as a baby, and we struggled for a decent part of a year to separate my step daughter with her's when she was a toddler. and that was a battle i really had no desire to repeat.
at a few days old though, it was apparent this kid had a strong need to suck. he nursed close to non-stop, and i was in pain, and exhausted. our midwife assured us that they do not recommend letting infants suck on anything but mum (fingers, pacifiers, etc) unless they have a very strong physical need to do so that goes above and beyond the norm, and that we shouldn't feel guilty to give myself a break and replace a nipple for something else. i still had a lot of reservations despite trusting our midwife's judgement, so i opted for letting him suckle my finger.
for a few weeks. i lasted over a month and then it became obvious that if i was ever going to be able to put him down, clean, cook, eat, do anything, i couldn't keep my finger in his mouth. so i swallowed my pride and bought him a soother.
i made sure it was as natural as i could find, going with the hevea, made of natural rubber. and i celebrated a little bit of freedom! since he outgrew his reflux and had the ability to hold toys/teethers and put them in his mouth, he only used his soother for sleeping.
i kept joking that he should just ween himself off his soother since he was so good at reaching all his other milestones on his own.
and he did.
he had started spitting it out once he was asleep, and then one day he just refused it all together, and he still will not touch it! i am so thankful that he has outgrown a pacifier at such a young age and on his own. now i just need to ween him off nursing to sleep, which i enjoy very much, but sometimes need a break from our new marathon nursing sessions. one thing at a time i suppose.
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