The Very Small Boy recently entered a particularly upsetting phase of Very Bad Sleep. If only it were as simple as giving in and putting him on a nightly bottle of filling formula, I might actually consider doing just that and giving in to everyone around me who thinks I am unreasonably insisting on continuing to breastfeed (well he is only four months old).
In any case, my opinion is that the Very Small Boy’s sleep-related problem is twofold. Firstly, he has learnt a New Skill (grabbing) and therefore forgotten an Old Habit (thumb-sucking). This isn’t as irrational as it sounds: he is so delighted with his newfound ability to grab anything that comes within reach that instead of putting his Very Small Thumb in when he lies down, he thrashes about trying to grab the bedcovers and put them into his mouth instead (and with far less satisfying consequences).
The second issue we are dealing with here is that the Very Small Boy’s sleep appears to be disturbed by teething. The signs are all there: hot little cheeks, continuous biting and an alarming amount of dribble. Putting his recent grabbing skills into practice, he has been cramming everything he can get his hands on into his mouth to chew on to try and provide some sort of relief from the discomfort.
Unfortunately, although I have tried all manner of teething toys for him, he seems to find them all compelling and yet somehow strangely unsatisfactory. What he enjoys best is to clamp down with bitey little gums on my thumb (the irony of his having forgotten about his own thumb is not lost on me) and chew frantically on it with a small frown of concentration.
And so it was with a feeling of great apprehension that I received the news that DH had decided he could no longer put off a work-related trip to India, and was planning, at fairly short notice, to fly off to Delhi. Thankfully, Granddad promised to come over from London and help pick up the pieces. And he did. But that’s another story.
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