8 Weeks & Sylvia's First "Friend"

It it truly amazing how quickly time does fly. Of course, part of that may be the sleep deprivation that makes everything blur together. I have been told by many that the first three months after your child is born are nothing more than a haze in one's memory. As I cannot even remember what I wore yesterday, I am inclined to agree that this assessment is indeed an accurate description of a mom's early motherhood memories. (Hence the reason for the blog!) Sylvia is indeed eight weeks, nearly two months already. She is looking more and more like a little person and less like a generic newborn. (I tend to think that all newborns look somewhat similar.)
And, okay, I am going to admit that I may be a horrible parent. First, my child already has a serious addiction. Second, I may be submitting her to inhumane treatment. But if you lived with her you would indulge her addiction and take the same course of action as I have. This girl is completely addicted to her pacifier. Let me explain in detail:

First, there is only ONE type of pipe that she will take. It CANNOT be found in stores. She got it from the hospital and I had to hunt it down online to get more.

Second, she wants to suck nearly ALL the time. And no, not even sleep can tear her away from this pipe. She will fall asleep with it in and we will watch her continue to suck even when she is completely passed out. When I go to remove it she quickly latches on for all she is worth-- in her sleep!

Third, she sucks the living daylights out of this thing and as a result spits it right out of her month because she is sucking so hard. This makes the average in-mouth duration only a mere second or two, five seconds if we are really lucky. And of course, when she loses the pipe she SCREAMS.

So, as you can see, this girl is a pipe-aholic. And she was running me ragged with her inability to keep the pipe in her mouth. I simply could not take it anymore, and so, the above picture reveals my previously named "inhumane treatment." A little piece of elastic and suddenly that pipe can sometimes stay in for twenty minutes straight. (She does still manage to spit this one out of her mouth too!)

And, finally, Sylvia's friend is Cora. We met Cora's parents through a "new parent" type class. Jen and Luke have a number of similarities with Dave and me and our daughters are just a few weeks apart in age (Cora was born the 25th of September, Sylvia the 17th of October). It's been fun watching the two babies together. Sylvia had her fist near Cora's mouth and Cora just started sucking on it as if it were her own. Meanwhile Sylvia is a BIG TIME fidgety child and would constantly slap Cora across the face. Ahhh . . . Must be the makings of a long-term friendship!