Pacifiers and Thumb-sucking

My well-meaning mother states, "It is better for a child to have a pacifier because you can throw it away. You cannot cut off his thumb, Danielle." Yes, that was my goal, to remove my child's thumb. Where does she come up with this stuff? She has said this so many times, I was starting to think I was setting my child up for a lifetime of addiction because I was so quick to place a pacifier in his mouth rather than let him soothe himself. Thankfully, I never pulled his thumb out of his mouth and replaced with a pacifier. I figured if he wanted it in there and he was quiet, it worked for me. However, if he started to get fussy, I popped a paci in there.

Good news, I noticed this morning while nursing that he has not been using either much lately. I think it is because the teething has slowed down. He is 7 months old and has 5 teeth already. Number 6 is due any day now. His first two bottom teeth came in at 2.5 months and it was difficult to find things that he could hold and teeth on. Now, that he is a bit older, he is able to chew on other things like the legs of the furniture or whatever he can get his hands on. I need to place a "Beware of child" sign around his neck because if your hand, arm, toes, watch, zipper pull (anything, really) are near his mouth, he wants to chew on it. The world is his chew toy and you are just tasty.

Over the last few days he has started to "crawl". I have a feeling that nothing will be safe from him mouth soon. Baby proofing is on my list of to-dos, but I have been dreading it. My house is a mess and although I have been advertising for a cleaning fairy, one has yet to make an appearance. Will be sure to let you know as soon as I get one, in case she has family also in the "business". In the mean time, I pray for the ambition and energy to get things in order. Where is the nesting compulsion when you really need it?