We bit the bullet and got rid of SB and BW's pacis Sunday night. We planned to do it this coming weekend, when we didn't have big plans with anyone else and could sneak in naps if need be or put the girls to bed early. But circumstances presented themselves, so we jumped off the cliff. This was on my list of things to do before Nugget arrives, so I'm hoping it goes smoothly.
Like most of my parenting choices, this is one that changed pre- and post-baby. I had not wanted to introduce pacifiers, because i was concerned about nipple confusion with breastfeeding. That lasted until our second night home, when we caved and offered the girls pacis. It was a wonderful decision. It did not interfere with our BFing relationship and SB and BW could satisfy their need to suck without being attached to me at all times. By four months, we only gave the girls their pacis in the car and for sleeping time. We also invested in Wubbanubs. Best.paci.ever. We rarely had to go in to give them the wubbanub because if it fell out of their mouth while sleeping, they could find it. It was also nearly impossible for them to fall through the slats of the crib. At five months, we took away wubbas in the car, and they only got them for sleep time. Although I planned to take them away at a year, SB and BW were not ready. They had only recently started consistently sleeping through the night, were getting their first molars...and it just continued from there. There was always a disruption or reason to not take them away. SB chewed through hers about six months ago...and we panicked and gave her a spare we had laying around after she wouldn't settle at all.
About a month ago, SB's paci at daycare broke. She's been napping without one at daycare since.
However, Friday night SB's home paci cracked. The girls didn't take a nap Saturday, and I gave it to her Saturday night, but I didn't want to keep giving her a potential choking hazard. I also didn't want to introduce another new one, when we were so close to giving them up. So, we asked her if we should throw it away since it was broken, and explained this meant that there would be no more paci. She agreed she wanted to throw it away. BW doesn't like to be left out, so we asked if she would like to throw hers away too, and she said she did (she still has her wubbanub, so we cut the paci part off and she kept the animal part). So we had both girls throw theirs in the trash.
We put them to bed...and crying ensued. I think the problem here is SB and BW are pretty smart, and SB knew that her paci was still RIGHT THERE in the garbage and someone could retrieve it for her, as we expected SB to transition much better. It took them about an hour and a half to finally fall asleep. But, once asleep, they did phenomenal. Possibly because they were so worn out, but we didn't have to get up once to comfort/console during the night. Of course, I slept terrible because I was EXPECTING it to be a disastrous night, so I couldn't seem to get into a deep sleep. We heard a "paci broke" over the monitor, and a whimper here or there, but we didn't have to go soothe them once. Go SB and BW! Although they commented this morning about "paci broke" they did not ask for them. Hopefully the trend continues.
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