We are THROUGH

With the paci! I didn't want to say anything about it because I didn't want to "jinx" it, but we are going on about 2 weeks of being paci-free! I know that a lot of people thought it was too early to take away the paci, but I just felt like it was time and that it was the right thing to do. It has been WONDERFUL. I know every baby is different and I know that my advice may not help anyone, but I am going to tell you all how I did it so if you ever need to get rid of a paci, maybe this will help.

I first let her only have it in her crib. For the first 3 days, she would get a little whiny without it, especially when it got close to naptime. But basically it seemed to me like she didn't even notice that it was gone. She did start babbling a LOT more without that thing in her mouth.

After I realized she could do so well without it during the day, I was a little terrified of how she would ever go to sleep without it. We started putting her to bed without it to see what would happen, and for about 3 days (I swear, it seems like three days is the magic number for babies for some reason), she would be pretty upset when going down for a nap. Not so much at bedtime though, which was great. She would wake up about 3-4 hours after we put her to bed and after making sure she didn't need anything, I would just stay awake and keep watching her while she cried it out. The 3rd night was the hardest. She cried for a little while longer that night and while we were waiting for MA to go to sleep Hays and I talked and questioned whether or not we were doing the right thing. We got our answer the next night... she has slept through the night without her paci ever since. I actually think she sleeps better without it.

Now, my reasoning behind taking it away is that I thought it would be so much harder when she had a real attachment to it. I also thought it would be harder for ME when she could verbalize that she wanted it. So there you go. Believe it or not, I thought I would be one of those moms that would never use the paci, but I QUICKLY changed my mind about 2 weeks in. Don't get me wrong, I have loved our relationship with the paci. It served us well and helped us through some really tough times! No judgement on those who keep the paci for a long time, I know as a mom you do what you have to do to keep your sanity. Good luck to any of you who try this! I will be asking for advice on many things to come, I am sure.

And by the way, You all need to go back to my original paci post here and read the second comment by Ladd. It wins the award for FUNNIEST BLOG COMMENT EVER!