A milestone

I should have posted about this momentous occasion a few weeks ago but we have been very busy and honestly, it has taken this long for it to sink in that we have actually achieved a milestone with Rachel.

For the last few months we have been trying to encourage Rachel to suck her fingers only when she is going to bed but it is a habit that she has had since she was just a few months old and she unconsciously puts them in her mouth an awful lot throughout the day - whenever she's tired or sad or bored, etc. Auntie Cynthia calls it her "default position." Around the beginning of July, I came up with an idea that I thought we should try, of putting bandaids on her fingers during the day in order to help her realize when she was sucking her fingers. I explained this to Rachel and then, for a week or two, I used it as a "threat." Whenever I saw Rachel sucking her fingers in the day, I would say, "Do you want me to get the bandaids and she would take her fingers out and say "no." Then one day, to my utter shock, she said, "ok." So we put two bandaids on her two fingers and away she went, happy as a clam and showing everyone that she had bandaids and she wasn't going to suck her fingers anymore. At bedtime I assumed she would want them off so she could suck her fingers as she fell asleep but she was determined to keep the bandaids on, even after the bath when they started slipping off a bit. It took her a little while longer than normal to fall asleep that night but she did it. The next day when her bandaids fell of, she was devastated and asked for new ones so of course, we complied. Well, this continued for about 3 or 4 days and then when the bandaids fell off, we didn't put any new ones off and she hasn't sucked her fingers since!!

I have mixed feelings about this momentous occurrence. It makes me think of a wonderful children's book that makes me cry every time I read it. It is Karen Kingsbury's book, "Let Me Hold You Longer," and it talks about how we record all of the "firsts" in our children's lives - first tooth, first word, first step, first day of school - but we don't know to record the lasts. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a Mommy of young children.

It starts out like this:

Long ago you came to me,
a miracle of firsts:
First smiles and teeth and baby steps,
a sunbeam on the burst.
But one day you will move away
and leave me to your past,
And I will be left thinking of
a lifetime of your lasts . . .


I had always thought that weaning Rachel from her fingers would be a long, arduous process with many tears on her part and mine. :) I'm thankful that it wasn't but in retrospect, I wish I had been paying more attention to when was the "last time" she sucked her fingers as she fell off to sleep. It was such an adorable habit. Don't worry, it wasn't cute enough to make me want to encourage her to start again - hahaha! But I do wish that I had taken a few more pictures of Rachel sucking her fingers instead of always telling her to take them out when I took her picture!

Here's the only one I could find (though I'm sure I have more) of her in "default position," fingers in mouth and the other hand playing with her hair.