Three weeks ago we decided to get rid of the paci once and for all, going with the "cold turkey" method. I have nothing against paci's, in fact when Brayden was a newborn and nothing else would soothe him we thought "what did we ever do before the paci?". That was before Brayden started spitting the darn thing out every hour ALL NIGHT LONG!!! We had Brayden sleeping in the pack-n-play next to our bed from birth until just three weeks ago when we moved him to his own room. We had originally planned on moving him to his own room at three or four months, but because of the constant need for the pacifier to be replaced he has been in our room until now. Between hearing friend's struggles with taking the pacifier away from their older kids, combined with waking up all hours of the night we finally decided to get rid of the pacifier once and for all! I took it away for the first time during his afternoon nap one day. I began preparing myself for the worse, surely we would have weeks of crying and sleepless nights! The worst it ever got was that first day when he cried for about 25 minutes before falling asleep. After that, we had just a couple of days when he would cry for 5-15 minutes before falling asleep. Now we can put him in his crib wide awake and he will go down on his own sometimes happily and sometimes with mimimal fussing. He still wakes up during the night and cries sometimes but after just a couple of minutes will fall back asleep on his own. So, after seeing a friend's blog titled RIP swaddle, I decided to do a tribute to the paci of which we have had a love/hate relationship. So here my friends is our journey with the paci:
It all started at about three weeks old with our beloved "Bevo", Brayden took the pacifier willingly. Bevo calmed Brayden when he was upset and helped tide him over until it was time to eat again. We were so excited, this thing was genius!!! Enter sweet, quiet, sleeping baby:
It was all good and well until Bevo would fall out and in turn Brayden would wake up. Then we started the game of putting the pacifier in, Brayden spitting it back out, over and over again!!!
Next, we tried giving him a traditional pacifier and had the same results
And finally, we have had "Mr. Rabbit" that was really a dog for the past couple of months. Mr. Rabbit seemed to help weigh the paci down and keep it in place. If Brayden was to spit it out, sometimes (and a very small sometimes) he was able to get it back in without any help.
I am very, very proud that we are finally rid of the paci and happy to report that we are all getting a little better sleep. Unfortunately as I finish up this blog, my sweet son is taking a nap with a new bad habit...sucking his thumb!!!
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