pacifiers anonymous

March 2012- I never thought I'd see the day these things disappeared from our life.  I have a love-hate relationship with them.  I love the quasi-peace they brought us but hate the dependence my youngest child developed.

Brazos has used a pacifier far more than Pecos ever did.  And for so much longer.  I think we were able to wean Pecos at about 15 months.  I thought it would be 15 years for Brazos.  Since the beginning of this year I've tried to only let him have them at nap time, bed time and in the car.  But sometimes he would find one stashed away and didn't want to give it up.  So I would give him a cookie and he'd have to hand it over.  I know, go ahead and nominate me for Mom of the Year.

Sometimes {okay, all the time} it was easier to just let him have one rather than have him fuss all the time.  Yes, I was that mom.  He was known to have one in his mouth, one in his hand, and another within arm's reach.  Thankfully, he never really got to where he would say the word 'paci' otherwise I think getting rid of them would have been 10 times harder.

I've been stressed about how we'd ditch them before his 2nd birthday and avoid a scolding from the pediatrician.  Not to mention a slew of birthday party pics with the lovely blue dot stuck in his mouth.  The thought did cross my mind to just leave him at Oma's or send him to MiMi's for a week with instructions to not return home until he was fully weaned from them.  But I wasn't sure they would carry out my evil plan.

So on a random day early in March Brazos was in an unusually good mood at bed time.  And I thought I'd see what happened if I just put him in his crib with no paci and a small toy to distract him.  To my total surprise it worked.  I really didn't have a plan for the middle of the night when he woke up searching for it, but either he didn't wake up or I was too exhausted to hear him on the monitor.  Then came nap time the next day and I tried it again.  Once again I was in utter disbelief at the lack of wailing coming from the crib.  That night at bedtime we did the same as the night before and still no major meltdown.  The next day he went to Mother's Day Out; I told them we were trying to get rid of the paci and thanks to nice weather and time outdoors before rest time he was exhausted and fell asleep right away sans paci.  That night we were 48 hours in and things were still going well.

But day three of the withdrawal hit HARD.  I didn't think I would make it past lunch time without a total relapse or some sleep inducing medication- for both of us.  Did I mention Casey was out of town the week of the spontaneous cold turkey disappearance of the paci?   Yeah, it was rough.  But I stuck to it.  And 3 weeks later I think I can finally say WE MADE IT!  But I'm sure if he were to find one he'd pop it right in his mouth and suck away.

We did have a few setbacks.  Like when he was crawling into the car and found one under the seat.  Or dug one out of the toy box.  Where were all of these when we needed them in the middle of the night or in the midst of a monumental meltdown?  All of a sudden they were popping up everywhere.  I even discovered one in the bottom of my purse.  But I'm so happy to report one is in his keepsake box and all others are in the landfill.