Looking back over the photographic records, the first instances can be seen in July, approximately 4 months after she was born. We don’t know what prompted it, but it brought us tranquility. It brought her comfort – and 4 episodes of Coxsackie. For nearly 4 years, Victoria has loved to suck her fingers.
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When pre-school started, we began to place a small Band-Aid around her fingers to prevent her from sucking on them during the school day. Every morning, she would select a Band-Aid from the box, and (eventually) put it on herself. Every day, in the mid-afternoon, she would ask to take her Band-Aid off, so that she could suck on her fingers for 30-45 minutes while lying on the couch, snuggling with her favorite blue blanket – sometimes whe would nap, other times just rest in a euphoric trance.
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Then, about three weeks ago, Victoria couldn’t sleep at night; every time she tried to suck her fingers she would nearly gag, because her nose was so congested, she could not suck and breathe at the same time. This prompted us to begin to apply the Band-Aid at night too.
It has been a long and trying few weeks for sure – her sleep was initially horrible and she became tired, cranky, increasingly uncooperative and short-tempered without her fingers to help her cope while still feeling under the weather from her cold (on top of it all). But now, things are almost back to normal.
Victoria is falling asleep without difficulties. She sleeps through the night. She is more pleasant during the days and a bit less snarky when you ask her to clean up her toys. Perhaps we should have brought about this change earlier than we did – I cannot say. Eventually, the need for comfort and security was outweighed by need for health and conformity. I am already nostalgic, though, for the sights of her with her fingers in her mouth. There was a certain waking peacefulness that I doubt I will see again.
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