I'll go ahead and admit that I am amazed at how many of my own parenting rules I've broken already. I gave him a paci when he was less than a week old. I let him fall asleep in my bed (laying him close to me and stroking his head was incredibly effective at getting him to sleep) before moving him to his for the first two months of his life. And I let him suck his thumb...occasionally.And this is what I've discovered. He has always been and continues to be exclusively breastfed despite the paci. (Not that I advocate repeating what I did...it may be that I just have a remarkably adaptable kid.) But anyway, we mastered the art of breastfeeding despite a number of paci's and bottle nipples introduced simultaneously. We're quite adept at it, too...I'm actually nursing him as I type! (Sometimes that's the only way I get a post in.) :)
He falls asleep all by himself in his own bed every night.
And while I'm hoping that he outgrows his thumbsucking (my research shows that 90% of kids do by the age of 4), and am still debating whether or not to reinforce the paci with greater fervency (and fervency is a word...I looked it up) I think the self-soothing aspect of it is worth allowing a little leeway for.
But here is the lastest rule I broke: I've let him watch TV. For the longest time he didn't even notice the TV, and then for awhile I couldn't decide whether or not he could see it, but lately it's obvious. He is very intrigued. I would catch him now and then craning his neck from his bouncy seat to see whatever was on so I was more careful about just leaving it on (which is something I used to do often just for the noise.)I did turn on Charlotte's Web one day and we skipped around to the songs (which I love and have memorized), and we watched Dr. Doolittle on TV, and we watched a Baby Einstein sample DVD twice. Then there were the You Tube videos we watched...Raffi in concert, The Very Hungry Caterpillar animated and narrated in Dutch, English and then Sign Language...stuff like that. 
However, today while I ate lunch and Frazier slept, I watched an episode of Unwrapped I'd recorded. When I finished I merged seamlessly from lunch to continuing the reorganizing of my gift-wrapping supplies (more on my cleaning-spree later). The recording finished and I just left the Food Network playing so I didn't have to extricate myself from my piles of gift bags and tissue to get the remote. When Frazier woke up I left him in his bouncy seat and began holding up gift bags as I organized them saying things like "This is a blue bag." "Ohh...look at this pretty bow!" "This is a birthday bag. See the birthday cake?"
However, today while I ate lunch and Frazier slept, I watched an episode of Unwrapped I'd recorded. When I finished I merged seamlessly from lunch to continuing the reorganizing of my gift-wrapping supplies (more on my cleaning-spree later). The recording finished and I just left the Food Network playing so I didn't have to extricate myself from my piles of gift bags and tissue to get the remote. When Frazier woke up I left him in his bouncy seat and began holding up gift bags as I organized them saying things like "This is a blue bag." "Ohh...look at this pretty bow!" "This is a birthday bag. See the birthday cake?" But alas, my reorganizing-turned-learning-activity was trumped by Rachael Ray. I couldn't get him to look away!! 
...and I kid you not- he cried when I turned it off!
...and I kid you not- he cried when I turned it off! So I turned it back on. And he fell back to sleep watching Rachael...and happily sucking his thumb. 
Be careful. His first word may be "yum-o" :)
ReplyDeleteParents have to be flexible so don't feak. Each child is unique. I bet he quits sucking his thumb soon. He doesn't seem too committed to it. I probably shouldn't have let Josh watch as much tv as he did when he was little, but VCRs were new and so was Fraggle Rock. :) We were both hooked on that one! "We" sang and danced to the unique music...so fun!
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