Purge the Paci

You know those "things" that you should probably not post on the Internet for all people in the whole wide world to read because you just KNOW that 100% of all people that don't have children, and 78% of all parents without paci loving children will not understand and most definitely will judge? 

This is one of those things.

But I'm just going with it because parenting is hard and even though this day has been kind of awful, I want to remember it. Because it has also been kind of sweet.

So Piper loves her pacifier. She didn't always... in fact, as a newborn I kind of thought she wouldn't even take a paci. But I kind of pushed it because, well, there's something about sticking a plug into a baby in church or after shots or at bedtime/nap time that's just kind of wonderful. 

And let me tell you, it worked all kinds of magic. You just needed to mention nap time and this kid was on her way to her bed voluntarily, hoping for sleep and a some good quality time with that pacifier.

For a weary parent, it was magical.

For two solid years, 3 months, and a handful of days it was magical.

But this week it started to not be magical anymore. We had weaned pacis to only sleeping time months ago. And her doctor said it really wasn't a problem for her to have it a limited number of hours in the day, and her dentist uncle said there were no real teeth concerns if it was also within that number of hours. But suddenly she wanted it all. the. time.

If she was hurt. If she was sad. If she was tired. If she was playing. And when we said no it usually wasn't a problem. Until this week. And then it was a major problem. Like crying for 40 minutes until we found some major distraction problem. 

So it needed to go. We checked out Elmo's Bye Bye, Pacifier DVD from the library, watched it this morning, she plopped the pacis in an envelope, and mailed them to a sweet baby in our life. We drove to target and picked out a new special snuggle sleep thing (teddy bear), and I was feeling great about nap time.

But then nap time happened and she realized she wasn't getting paci. And she cried so hard she threw up. And then let me rock her to sleep for the first time since before she was one.

She woke up crying. She was a mess most of the afternoon. And I was dreading bedtime. 

But for the most part it went way better. She snuggled with her big sister in bed and got up a gazillion times for water. And begged me to get to vacuum. (yes, vacuum.) 

When I told her she could vacuum in the morning after she slept all night without her pacis she cheered and told me she loved me. So apparently I'm not the worst mother ever.

She's finally asleep now, a solid 3 hours after her regular bedtime... and I anticipate needing to soothe her more than once tonight... but we are one day done.

The last time I went in her room and she requested the pacis, I told her how brave she was to give them to the babies that need them and she told me she wanted them back and didn't want to be brave. Bless. I can so relate. 

Anyway, Jordan asked me today if this was awful enough that I wouldn't want to give this next baby a pacifier. And my answer was an absolute no. If this baby takes a pacifier, power to the little man. We have had two years of gloriously easy sleep thanks to that pacifier. And I wouldn't change it for a moment. 

And that is the story of the paci.