Preferences and Decisions

It's amazing to me how babies have opinions. Serious Opinions. They start voicing them the very day they are born. Mathis has been very clear about his preferences: held upright, preferably over the shoulder; one sided nursing (like his brother); not too cold in here please.

A couple of things that are new to us are his preferences for his crib and stomach sleeping. Truitt hated the crib. Even dead asleep, the minute he touched that crib mattress "wwwhhhhaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!" And the stomach sleeping--- well, that is highly illegal. It's all about "Back To Sleep" and it's not that I don't care about higher SIDS rates for tummy sleepers, but this is the only way he will sleep. We did side sleeping and he would roll on to his tummy. Even if we bolstered him. So, nervously we made the decision to give in. He naps and sleeps on his tummy and loves it. A couple of things that we have to make us feel better about this are a video monitor and this cool breathing monitor, Respisense. The video monitor is great and not just b/c he tummy sleeps. He is also a noisy sleeper and it's so much nicer to be able to look at the screen and know if the noises are him sleeping and being noisy or him waking up. I can't believe we ever managed without one! The Respisense is a great gadget and came highly recommended by another mom but we've had it for over a week and haven't used it yet. Sigh.

I would say the preference that Mathis has which is most unlike his brother, even more than the crib, is the pacifier. Or the preference against the pacifier. Truitt is almost 2 1/2 and, for better or worse, still sleeps at home with the "chooch." I mention at home b/c he does not take it for naps at mothers' day out. Funny kid. He has always been a chooch baby, though, sucking on that little piece of plastic whenever he could. We were good and didn't stick it in his mouth all the time. It's been for sleep only 75% of the time at any age, which has helped keep it at bay even though he is now big enough to grab it from his dresser and pop it in to his mouth himself.

Where Truitt sucked on a paci from day 1, Mathis rejected the paci from day 1. Rejection of the paci has it's pros and cons. Pros: we won't have to ween him from it later, no risk of bad teeth from it, nothing to clean, nothing to have to remember and no meltdowns when it is forgotten. Cons: Mama is the pacifier. There might be more cons but this is the one that sticks out most in my head.

Earlier this week, Mathis was tired and a bit cranky. He is one of those miracle babies who you can put down in his crib tired but awake and he goes to sleep on his own. This happens 90% of the time for naps and about 50% of the time for night. This day it wasn't happening at all. He would cry and root, but he wasn't nursing. He was just going through the motions. Finally, I was at the end of my rope and found a paci and gave it to him. He went TO TOWN. I put him in the crib and he would suck and his eyes would get heavy, but then he would suck to hard or his tongue would trip him up and out it would come and he would cry. We went through this for a while and I realized it wasn't going to be worth it. I don't regret giving Truitt a paci because he needed it and wanted it from the beginning, but Mathis seems to be fine without it. I still carry one in my bag for emergencies and sometimes he'll fuss and we'll pop it in his mouth to hold him over, but he still can't keep it in himself so he never sucks it long. I think pretty soon we won't even offer it to him anymore. So there is another decision....

Here he is, in the highly illegal position, heavy eyelids and chooch.

So, I took the chooch away from him that day and something else happened. He finally did go to sleep, on his own, in his crib. And another preference was born. Houston, I think we have a thumb sucker. This was one of the rare times I put him down unswaddled (after having him swaddled and him having a fit, which is strange since he sleeps swaddled every time he sleeps in the crib- as opposed to somewhere like the car seat). I think the back and forth with the chooch calmed him and lulled him enough he was ready to sleep and then he found it. His hand! That was the loudest sound I've ever heard him make- the sound of sucking on his balled up fist. He loved it and with in a few wet, slobbery sucks he was off to sleep.