I am not SuperMum

2 February 2006, 12:20

There. I said it.

Yesterday was v. bad day – Sophia basically didn’t sleep all day, cried and cried and cried and nothing we did seemed to placate her. Of course, the more hysterical she became, the more over-tired she was, so the cycle just continued. Every time she cried, I cried harder (which I’m sure helped…) and McG was left taking care of his two girls rather than just the one who really needed it.

At 10pm, at our wits end, we called our good bud, Roz (aka Godsend) whose baby had been colicky (we thought that’s what might have been wrong with Sophia) and she came over with stories of the legendary holy grail of newborn pacification – the Dummy.

Now I know there is much debate about use of the dummy and I certainly don’t want to use it as a crutch (only for desperate times!), but Sophia just loves to suck all day. All day. She is a voracious little barracuda. So instead of her sucking my boobs dry every hour, we used the dummy and it. worked. She went to sleep almost immediately. And because she hadn’t slept at all yesterday, slept for 7 hours last night. McG and I finally got some sleep.

And peace descended upon the land…

In other baby news, Sophia has achieved second milestone – she gave McG his first ever hickey. Actually, make that the first milestone for McG. I tells ya, this baby loves to suck it down.

Home with my Girl… Click to enlarge in Gallery

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1. Don’t despair! The first 6 weeks or so are truly the hardest. And some bubs are just little suckers. Our first was, and he had a dummy from the second night in the hospital when the midwife cam barging in from the nursery, demanding we produce one ASAP. He gave it up at 2 years with no fuss at all. Second bub refused the dummy totally and never really needed it. And here’s a rather weird tip… If you can’t get little Sophia to settle, turn on the vaccuum (not too close to her!!) and see if the noise helps – worked like a charm with ours. Take care.
   — Deb Harrison    Feb 2, 09:22 PM    #
2. what’s a dummy? is that australian for a pacifier?
   
   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009A31LG/
   — gleek    Feb 3, 01:56 AM    #
3. My sister two-fisted pacifiers and my parents had to PRY them from her at five years old. Me, I was born with my thumb in my mouth and have had an oral fixation ever since.
   — Numine    Feb 3, 10:41 AM    #
4. No one expects you to be SuperMum, in fact I don’t think they really exist (excpet maybe Roz, by the sound of it, but I reckon even she has nights of tears). As for dummies, my 18mth old cousin in the UK has one and it works wonders and, according to research my bro read, they can help prevent nasty things like SIDS, so go with them if Sophia is happy.
   — bogue    Feb 3, 02:44 PM    #
5. A great Swedish book written by Anna Wahlgren, a mother of nine (!) (as far as I know there is no English translation) said something like the pacifier is fine, you just have to remember that you the mother is the one who put it in the baby’s mouth in the first place, so it is your responsibity to take it out when the time comes (when the need to suck decreases, i.e. at around six months). The Australian name for it seems therefore more appropriate: it is to used as a dummy, but not as a pacifier!
   I have been a fan of your blog for a couple of years, originally attracted to your views on Japan where I spent many years. My first name being sophie, I’ve got a new reason now!
   — miya    Feb 5, 10:55 PM    #
6. Here is another tip for later (In case you haven´t already had enough of tips!):
   
   If a small child gets a yelling and crying fit, just do exactly the same. They are so confused about what´s going on, they stop immediately. I tried it and it worked (usually)
   — Ferit    Feb 6, 10:06 AM    #