The Thumbsucker Gene

It has to be genetic.

We are 3 for 3 people and I keep thinking "what are the chances?"
I will admit that I was a thumb sucker until an embarrassing and undisclosed age.
I wasn't the kid who sucked her thumb in class or any other public place. I was a closet thumb sucker. I was always worried that I would be the last one to wake up at a sleep over and people would find me with my thumb in my mouth.  Thanks heavens that was before Facebook, Instagram and even the internet.  The public humiliation could have been devastating.

Ava was definitely my earliest thumb sucker. It took her awhile to get proficient but she managed to find her thumb often at even just a few weeks old. She was also stellar at taking a pacifier from the get go. We always put her to bed with the pacifier but in the night when she would stir, she would find her thumb and suck herself back to sleep. It was heavenly because she slept through the night very quickly.  She was ambidextrous when it came to thumb sucking and she never showed a preference for one over the other. We could actually here the slurping and sucking during the night and we would lay in bed and giggle. Then just after moving into our new house a few weeks before her 1st birthday, she suddenly stopped. One day we noticed we hadn't seen her do it for awhile. As she got closer to 1 years old, she really only did it at night or when she was asleep in car seat. I think she just started finding her pacifier in the middle of the night and putting that back in her mouth instead of sucking her thumb.  Either way, we were spared the job of trying to get her to quit. PHEW!

AC "Angry Claire" never would take a pacifier.  Well, she briefly did for about a month and a half. As a newborn, she would scream and we would try to give her a pacifier but she acted like we stuck a cold fish in her mouth. She couldn't seem to figure out how to initiate sucking the pacifier and then she would get so mad trying that it would back fire. Sometimes she was so mad she almost seemed possessed (hence the name AC). All the while she always seemed to be trying to get her hand to her mouth. I persevered with the pacifier and she seemed to "slightly" get the hang of a it until she got a cold and stuffy nose. She couldn't breath through her mouth and suck the darn thing at the same time so she stopped taking it.  She never would take it again. We struggled with how to soothe her until one day she finally got the thumb into her mouth. And there it has stayed ever since! Some things are great about thumb suckers.  So far I believe it has made my babies better sleepers. But on the flip side, I think Claire is sick A-L-O-T more. We have been preparing her and telling her that when she turns 3 years old she has to quit. Wish us luck!

Now, numero 3.  Uhhhh Ohhhh!  I think we are headed down the thumb sucking path. So far he is taking more after Ava in the pacifier department.  It wasn't completely natural to him but he got the hang of it quick and seemed to like it.  But around a month old, he could get his fist to his mouth and we noticed him chewing on his hands. He always seemed to be trying to unearth his thumb from under all the other fingers. Then we started finding his thumb in his mouth when we checked on him at night. In a few instances, I actually observed him spitting his pacifier out to get to his thumb.  YIKES! It is cute, adorable and heart melting.  I just die when I they seem to wrap or hang their index finger over their noses while they suck.  But in all honesty, I don't mind it for now but I hope he does like Ava and just magically quits on his own before he turns a year.  Here's to hoping!

I just thought of something.
Maybe there is a correlation between thumb sucking and having the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck at birth.  All 3 of my children had to be freed from the cord around their neck before they could be fully delivered and all 3 suck their thumbs.
I bet there is something to it (okay maybe not)!