Binkies

The hospital where Annika was born is a "baby friendly" hospital. One of the things that distinguishes a "baby friendly" hospital is the fact that they do not encourage the use of pacifiers. I spent the first night in the hospital nursing Annika every hour on the hour. (I did not have one of those docile little newborns that just sleeps and sleeps and sleeps...AJ came out ready to take on the world.) By the morning I was so tired I had Eric bring in a pacifier so that my body and I could get some rest. I remember the postpartum nurse coming in and seeing Annika with the pacifier in the morning and lecturing me about Annika's feeding cues and how babies shouldn't use pacifiers for at least the first 2 weeks because it just masks their hunger cues(By the way, our 8 month old weighs about 23 pounds so I'm pretty sure we didn't miss too many hunger cues). I tried to explain to her that Annika had been eating ALL NIGHT and she just looked at me with her judging eyes and said, "well that's what they do..." (mind you, she herself did not have any children) I just wanted to cry and Eric wanted to punch her.

Well we successfully got AJ hooked on the pacifier and 8 months later it still calms her down. I now only give it to her during naps and bedtime. She has 4 or 5 of them in bed with her and all I have to do is lean her over her bed and show her her "binkies" and she lunges for the bed and settles down to sleep. In the picture above she has a binkie in each hand and one in her mouth...hey whatever works!