ControverSunday: Comfort Objects
April 11, 2010 9 Comments
I’m participating in ControverSunday, the most divisive post meme on the Internet!
This week’s subject (it may have been last week’s, actually, but I’m really behind on things) is comfort objects — pacis, blankies, thumbs and any other object that your baby uses to comfort herself.
During the girls’ almost-17 months on this planet, I’ve actually tried to push different comfort objects — stuffed animals and receiving blankets, mostly. As I’ve discovered, they would much rather choose their own comfort objects, thankyouverymuch.
Pacis: Both girls gave up on pacifiers by four months. I’m glad for that because man, have you ever seen a four year old with a pacifier??? Kinda sad.
Blankies: Woobie, security blanket, lovey (lovey? seriously? we never said that when I was growing up), whatever. The girls both have a blankie. However, they’re not your run-of-the-mill, soft-and-fuzzy, intended-to-be-a-blankie blankies. Their blankies are former Halo Sleep Sacks, which we used with them until six or seven months ago. I didn’t want to have 18-month-olds in sleep sacks — it just looked bizarre — but the girls couldn’t fall asleep without them. So, brilliant parents that we are, we left the sleep sacks in their cribs like comfort blankets. And that’s how that came about.
Althea only wants her blanket during bed time. She stuffs as much fabric as possible into her mouth and chews/sucks on the material. I have no explanation for this behavior.
Elise, on the other hand, loves her some blankie all day long. In bed, she’ll carefully arrange and rearrange the fabric around her fingers and hands while sucking her thumb. During the day, she drags it around with her if it’s available. At this age, it’s still publicly acceptable for her to have the blanket. If it becomes socially weird, we’ll address it then.
Thumbs: Althea, no thumb. Elise, left thumb all the way. Elise likes to drag the blankie around while sucking her thumb. It’s pretty adorable right now — much more adorable than the habit I had when I was a kid of sucking my index finger. Yeah, a little embarrassing in retrospect.
Stuffed animals: I’ve tried to get the girls “into” stuffed animals but, so far, they’ve only had fleeting affairs with them. We tried sock monkeys, fuzzy teddy bears, Ugly Dolls (those things are awesome) and baby dolls. No dice. The only constant has been the stuffed animals we leave in the cribs for them: Jeanine Giraffalo (a giraffe, duh) and Sherry Lewis (a lamb, duh). Most of the time, the girls either steal them from each other or throw them out of the cribs altogether.
I actually still have a comfort object. I refer to it as my Stinky Pillow and I’ve had one since as long as I can remember. The Stinky Pillow isn’t a specific pillow, but rather a general type of pillow and a certain way of caring for it (or not, as you’ll learn) that creates the beloved stinkiness.
The SP has to be a real, down-stuffed pillow (I know, I’m going to hell) of a regular size that cannot, under any circumstances, be washed, deodorized, or cleaned in any fashion. Ever. The pillow case can occasionally be laundered, but preferably stays on for a couple of months at a time. The pillow then takes on the comforting smell of — I don’t know. Hair? Scalp mites? BO? Special magical fairy comfort dust? No matter. One whiff and I’m four years old again and all is right with the world. Ahhhhh.
So yeah. I totally just admitted that I’m 32 years old and I have a woobie. Time to start blurring my face out of every photo so you can never, ever identify me in public.
9 comments
Holy crap, my husband has a stinky pillow! And…I…WASHED IT. And it has never been the same. I feel terrible about that, actually.
You guys are making me think that maybe I should get the pacifiers out of the house before E gets attached and demands them (and before we require a pacifier fairy(!), which I am learning about today.
Every night goes something like this"
"Dan, where's my pillow?"
"Which one?"
"You know which one. MY pillow."
"Oh. Here." And he hands me my soft NAP pillow from Brookstone. I used to have a Diet Coke pillow, which speaks volumes about how I felt about Diet Coke… and needing a lovey. And until college graduation, it was a normal sized beanie baby stuffed animal (like the stuffed animal size). I freely admit my disorder!
[...] Two Makes Four [...]
I have a teddy bear that my grandma gave me for my first xmas. At the time, it was larger than I was. Being that I was a pretty tidy kid, it's still in almost perfect condition except for the arm and neck "sockets" which have clearly been squeezed a lot as they are tiny in comparison to the rest of Bebe Orson's (Baby Bear en francais) body. I slept next to him from infant-hood all the way until my fiance moved in with me—yeah, when I had to start sharing the bed with the 6'4" beast, there was no room, so I retired him to the closet for use on particularly stressful days
oh no! I have an SP! I didn't realize it. I've had it since I was 18 and the only enhancement has been an allergen cover. That cover helps keep the down in too. It is the best ever when I have headaches.
And, my eldest has his own SP. The bright blue throw pillow. It reeks!!!!! no cover to wash. It's been puked on and had to go through the wash after that. Now it's lumpy and he won't even part with it for us to wash. He sweats a lot at night. the pillow is NASTY! We have tried and tried to replace it. No luck. My youngest is still happiest with his right thumb. I'm ok with that, I can wash his thumb.
Tav has a bear named Banjo, you can snap its snap, close his button, tie his lace, unvelcro the velcro, determine the colours and use it for comfort. it was one of those learning bears and hasn't disappeared quite yet, its in his bed. Silas, doesn't have one. Thad and Heath are in love with their thumbs and their special made quilts(cocooned Heath is every day for every sleep). Ewan well he has no fixation yet, tho I have seen him trying to sneak his fist in the mouth when the boob doesn't come fast enough. I don't have one my father got rid of it when I was still a child. Its traumatic to even think about, ask me sometime lol
This whole post was hilarious.
I'm the same way, I kinda pushed the comfort items on my kids. I'm kinda sorry I did with my oldest, he's almost 6 and carries around BLUE (they have to be blue, baby blue, no other shade will work) thermal baby blankets. And he carries around this horrible Diego doll with hard plastic hair.
My daughter has her thumb and her "binkies" (her term, not mine) which are either old burp clothes or small little blankets.
You are not alone in your adult attached to said pillow. I have one of those pillows. It's fulled with those little balls and conforms exactly to whatever shape I am currently desiring. I will lay in bed and actually rub the balls between my fingers (double meaning meant:)) until I fall asleep. That thing has traveled all over the world with me and has only been washed a couple of times. Disgusting? Most definitely. Absurd? Absolutely. And no, I don't let my twins touch it. It's my pillow, MINE!!
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