When Mercy was a baby she was never keen on sucking her thumb and only took pacifiers on occasion. As soon as we had her cry it out she found a rather unusual way of putting herself to sleep. She would rub her ear with the opposing hand whilst she sucked on her arm as it crossed her face to reach her ear. Very similar to what she is doing in this photo -------------------> but imagine she is rubbing her ear with her right hand (the same one she is sucking on). Eventually she grew out of sucking on her arm, but at times she still rubs her ear and makes sucky faces when she is tired. My thought at the time was "at least she's not sucking her thumb."
In his first few months Bennett, just like Mercy, showed no interest in his thumb. He took a pacifier rather well, but never relied heavily on it. I was beginning to think that I had once again dodged a bullet and then he started teething!! It seems I'm finding his thumb in his mouth more and more these days and once the initial shock wore off, I had to admit to myself that it's actually rather cute! He uses it most often when his teeth are bothering him and only occasionally when he's sleepy. When I find him sucking on it casually I'll take it away and attempt to replace it with a pacifier. If he's going to get hooked on something I'd much rather it be something I can take away later on. But for now it is nice to know that when a pacifier doesn't work he has something to soothe him, especially as he teethes.
