The miracle of the thumb and my new lease on life

I sound like the survivors of some disease and I don't want to make light of it, but I do feel like I have a new lease on life. All thanks to my son's left thumb. Prior to our trip to DC my husband and I kept wondering what we were going to do once he started bawling. See, my son was one of the few babies in the world that absolutely HATED the car and started crying whenever we put him in the car. Most other babies zonk out the minute the engine starts up. People say it has something to do with the reflux. I had tried several times to get him to take the pacifier (which his sister took during her first 24 hours of life and didn't let go of until her 2nd bday) but he wanted nothing to do with the pacifier.

So much to our surprise we get in the car and for the first 5 hour leg of the trip we only get cries whenever he's actually hungry and due to eat. It's like someone took my old baby a way and gave me a brand new, calmer baby. It couldn't have come at a better time either because we had no idea how we were going to be able to put up with such a long drive and a crying baby. But somehow my baby had found his thumb. And I found God.

As a result, he was the MVP of the weekend. While everyone had meltdowns and tantrums and fights amongst each other, Sebastian was all happy and content to sit there sucking on his thumb. The picture above says it all.

Now all of a sudden (literally overnight) he sleeps more. Instead of waking every 1-2 hours at night he sleeps the whole night with the exception of waking up for his 3 am feeding. So now I sleep so much better (hence why I am also a new person not just him). Last night at 3 am he woke up, and I go to get him and he's sucking on his thumb with not a care in the world and he's looking at me like "lady, I don't know why you think I need help here, I would be totally happy to just sit here but if you feel you must feed me then suit yourself, have it your way. I only wake up at 3 am cause you want to feed me. I'm just trying to please you." :)

The poor thumb is all red now, but I am sure the ladies at day care who are about to take him in next week (I can't believe it, where the hell did the time go?!) will be very happy to have this new Sebastian.

The only downside to all of this is that now I'm behind on my Google Reader news items and on Facebook since I used to browse on my iPhone whenever he woke up at night (which used to be at least 3 or 4 times and now is only 1!). Oh well, I would say that's more than a fair trade off.

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