I never thought I'd say this, but I wish my child could suck her thumb.

At the risk of being too much of a downer on this blog entry, I have to have an outlet for a few paragraphs.  I came to the realization this past week, that Jude's right arm, the arm we thought was going to be fine, just won't bend or straighten.  I thought it was bending a little bit, because it appeared she would be able to suck her thumb.  But as the bones grow longer, she can't get her thumb in her mouth. 

You can see in the picture I posted she's bending her hand back at the wrist trying to get her thumb in her mouth.  Her arm is locked in about a 45 degree angle.  Lock your elbow in a 45 degree angle and see if you can get your hand to your mouth, or your face, or your hair.  You can't.  It's breaking my heart because babies at this age explore everything with their mouths.  They use their hands to bring toys, clothes, stuffed animals up to their mouths to learn more about their environment.  They use it for comfort.  It just makes me mad at God all over again.

How am I supposed to think about this.  Am I supposed to try to look on the bright side and be positive that someday something will be done?  It seems futile to think that way. I have prayed about a thousand Hail Marys in the last 4 months, just hoping somehow a miracle will happen and both of Jude's arms will be healed while she's sleeping one night.  Is that faith or am I just living in a fantasy world?  I wrote to a doctor at Duke University Medical Center about the stem cell experiments growing bones and he said it's not being used for congenital bone malformations.  Basically it's being used to help with bone fractures, but not to grow entire bones.

It's ironic because I know parents who tried or are trying to break their kids of the thumbsucking habit or pacifier and I would give just about anything for my daughter to be able to suck her thumb successfully or raise the pacifier to her mouth in a few months. 

On the flip side, I want to tell you about a useful discovery I think I made with Joey.  He has been sucking his thumb since he was about 4 months old.  Always has done it.  Now at 2 years and 8 months old, the child just plain stopped.  Quit cold turkey.  He doesn't do it anymore at all.  A friend of mine asked how I got him to stop and I think the answer is I never brought it up.  I never made it an issue, it didn't worry me.  Since it wasn't an issue, I think he just dropped it on his own.  Now let's see if that approach works for potty training :)