Giselle and Her Thumb

So, Giselle is the only one of our precious babes who found her thumb. At the beginning I was afraid 1.) because people are always touching her hands and I didn't want her putting all those germs into her mouth, and 2.) because I didn't want it to become a habit so hard to break. I had talked to a dear teen from our church (who I roomed with at the retreat and I looove her!) who sucked her thumb at night until she was like 13 years old. I also know of a man who I think is in his 50's and still sucks his thumb at night (He's got some serious issues . . . no really, he does. Not mental, but anger and other stuff).

Anyway, when I would see Giselle sucking her thumb I would pull it out and try to feed her or give her a pacifier. The problem is she would gag with them. I tried a few different ones and after about a week of this she finally took a pacifier but would get tense and cry if I moved my hand near her when she was sucking her thumb :-( I felt terrible and decided at once to stop. Now she sucks her thumb and I have learned to embrace it and just love it.

Well, yesterday we were getting soccer pics taken of the kids with their teams when one of Martini's teammates' moms came to me and started talking. While she was talking she all of the sudden reached up and took Giselle's thumb out of her mouth and said, "Don't you suck that thumb! You get that out of your mouth!" I immediately hugged Giselle and said, "Oh, no. It's O.K. I don't mind her sucking her thumb." She told me that her daughter just recently stopped sucking her thumb at night and that it is why she has buck-teeth (which it didn't look like it to me, but then she told me her overbite was really bad).

She is a nice lady and her intentions were good but rash! I have appreciated the fact that Giselle is able to self-soothe especially since I can leave her to sleep when she has finished nursing because she will suck her thumb instead of needing me to lay there with her. She is now able to tolerate the van too!

One day it might be a struggle to overcome, but for now, I will enjoy Giselle and her thumbsucking for the comfort it brings her. What freedom there is when we learn to let go and enjoy what God's given us!