A Rite of Passage

I'm a Momma who likes pacifiers. I've breastfeed each child and each has wanted to suck WAY beyond "nursing time". And for comfort, especially at bedtime!!! Or those quick trips into the store when you're pretty sure the baby is getting hungry, but you just need a minute!!

After the baby is about 6 months or so I start limiting paci time!! Like only in the car, in a store if they start to fuss and nap/bedtimes. But the big question of when and how to wean them completely off is hard. I would love to spend hours and days solving my "mommy questions" but it's not quite possible right now:)

We were fortunate with Anna because months after her 2nd birthday, she started to chew holes in her pacis. I showed her the problem and we threw them away together. And then one day she go to the last paci and I warned her about chewing holes into it and sent her to bed...... sure enough the next time I check it, it had a hole and so off to the trash it went. We had some crying for the first and second nap/bedtimes, but then the issue was over. SO easy!! No heart break for Momma! And the best thing was that she remembered throwing it in herself :) She asks where her paci is sometimes, I just answer her matter-of-factly, "We threw it in the trash because it was broken, you chewed holes in it, remember? "

Well, a couple of days ago I noticed Christoher's paci was starting a little hole. I warned him about chewing holes and then (bad mommy) let him have it for a few days to decide when to take it. We've been on our Christmas family visit/vacation and I really didn't want it to be an issue then. Anyway, this morning as we were packing up I checked it again and it was really bad...I couldn't give it back to him without worrying about it (choking hazard).

So I went through with the same plan as Anna. I showed Christopher the holes in the paci and said that we needed to "throw it away because it was broken". I was a little surprised with how easily he went along with everything. I gave him the paci and he walked with me to the trash and put it in with out much hesitation. On the way home he didn't even ask for it and took 2 naps. This evening , which I expected to be the "Big Realization", was too easy. We put him in bed and gave him his blanket and he went to sleep. He hasn't been feeling well today, so maybe we just got off easy tonight :) Well see what happens tomorrow!!!

BTW, each time I did have an extra one - just in case. But with Anna, since it was one she wasn't used to she didn't want it. We bought Lydia some new ones this weekend and bought a green one just as a backup.....Christopher wasn't even interested:)

I think this morning's "Paci tossing" was harder on the adults than Little Man. We see it as him growing up:) He saw it was helping Mommy throw away a broken paci :)