Ditching the Pacifier at 22 Months

I have to say that I was on the fence about whether or not I even wanted Johannes to stop using his pacifier.  He loves, loved, that paci more than anything so I was positive that he would put up a fight if we tried to take it away.  That and with the two year molars just around the corner I was hoping the pacifier would provide him with a little bit of comfort.

Back in August he started going to Montessori and there they don’t allow pacifiers under any circumstances.  I was nervous that he would have trouble falling asleep without the beloved pacifier, but he surprised me and did not even bat an eye at the change.  On the home front it was a different story, we continued to use the pacifier for naps and bed times, and tried to hide it from him the rest of the day…unless he was teething or sick.

Then last week Johannes was sick and my mom came to stay with him for the day while I headed to work.  She texted me to ask if she should give him the pacifier for the nap, but I was in a meeting and did not see the message until much later on.  By that time my mom had made a decision, she thought that we were done with the pacifier at naps so she did not give it to Johannes…and he fell asleep without it!

With one nap under our belt it was time for night time sleep.  That night Johannes fell asleep on the toilet, the story goes that his antibiotics gave him diarrhea and J was too afraid to get off the toilet for fear that he would have an accident.  So he refused to come down and eventually fell asleep on the toilet, without a soother.

The next day we decided to follow the same plan.  No soother at night and no protest from Johannes until 4 am when he awoke to look for it.  That night I gave in, I was tired and feeling sick myself, so I gave him the soother…all the while vowing not to give it back to him the next day.  And I kept my promise.

The next night was tough, he woke up every hour from nine pm to two am looking for it.  But the next night after that was better, and so was the one after that …and now a week in and we’re pacifier-less.  So its officially time that I throw each and every single one of them out…or else I might be inclined to use one should we have a tough cold bout or another teething phase.

I think the moral of the story is that as parents we envision changes with our babies as being much tougher than they are in reality.  Transitioning to the toddler bed, weaning from the bottle, weaning from the boob, potty training or pacifier removal.  I feel like sometimes we hold on to those things because it keeps our littles little just that much longer.  Or maybe its only me who does this.