Little Biter

Biting, pinching, hair pulling, and eye poking have all become part of our everyday lives. Petra's pretty good with hair pulling, if I say, "let go, let go, let goooo", she usually will. Her approach to eye poking is a little more subtle though. If you see her coming and you close your eyes, she'll gently flick your eyelashes around and start trying to gouge your eye ball out. It's actually pretty cute.

Biting is something I can't handle. I've been told that I deserve it because I was a biter. I can remember very clearly getting this feeling/urge and I would just bite. It wasn't because I was mad, it just happened. One day my babysitter bit me after I bit her son and that was it, I didn't bite after that.

Petra bit me for the first time about a month and a half ago, a few weeks after she cut her teeth. She had gummed me a few times before and that hurt but it can't be compared to teeth biting - it's so much scarier with teeth. 

I thought I was prepared for that first bite. I read the advice on Baby Centre about how to handle it, but when it actually happened, she took me completely by surprise. I had the presence of mind to break the latch and tell her "no", she complained a little and I put her back on. For the rest of that feeding, I couldn't stop laughing because I was so nervous she would do it again. 

Since then, she has gotten me twice while nursing and a couple of times just when we're hanging out. She uses a distraction, she pinches me really hard on the neck on my right and then bites my left shoulder. If it didn't hurt, I imagine it would be really funny. I usually yelp and obviously she startles and sometimes she laughs. I'm hoping this little habit passes and that she doesn't start biting other people or kids.