When I found out I was pregnant, along with research, I started asking family and friends about pacifiers. I received some as gifts, a few as samples in the mail, and I bought the famous green Philips Avent Soothie. I felt I was prepared, with a range of different kinds, in the event my baby would need one for soothing.
Then my daughter was born at 37 weeks, weighing 4lb 2oz. We did not start a pacifier right away but we did around month 2. I started with the Soothie, but due to how small my daughter was, the soothie was too big for her. Then I dug into my stash. The one that worked for her was the Avent Ultra Air Pacifier. Avent even has ones that glow in the dark, so we had those for bed time to make it easier for us when we were fumbling around for it! Those pacifiers went with us everywhere, especially in the car.
Around a year old, we started the transition to pacifiers at nap and bed time only. I was nervous about this because my daughters crying was (is) a trigger for my anxiety. Thankfully, it was a surprisingly easy transition for us. I kept them out of sight during the day and only kept them in her bed. The only time we would make an exception to that rule was if someone was watching her and they needed to sooth her. We also would allow her to have it if she got hurt or was really upset about something because hearing her request it through her tears told me she really needed it to sooth her.
Fast forward to today; my daughter is 2.5 years old now. We kept that routine of nap and bed time only with her pacifiers until recently. I have a family member who is a dentist and we have been talking them up to my daughter because we want her to be comfortable going to the dentist. We saw them recently and had her go through a fun, quick little teeth check with him. He said that all looked good but her bite seemed off. Granted it was a super quick, fun, check but I asked if she was born with her bite or if it was caused by something. He said most likely from her pacifier but it could be off on its own too.
That night, my husband and I talked to our daughter and told her that her pacifier was hurting her teeth so we needed to stop using them. She became upset but we told her she could go to sleep with it that night and we would try with taking them away for naps first starting the next day.
Monday, the 3rd, was day 1. I was dreading it because I had a long nap time to do list but after a few up and downs from her bed and a few extra books in her bed with her she took a nap pacifier free! Since nap time went well, we talked with her and she wanted to try bed time. We told her to pick out any stuffed animal she wanted to sleep with her along with her beloved taggie. Well, that night was a little rough. We were up a few times with her throughout the night due to her habit of waking up, finding one, and going back to sleep.
Tuesday and Wednesday were great for nap again but we still had a few wake ups both nights. But, then on Thursday my parents came into town. I was wondering how that would affect us trying to make a new routine. Surprisingly, it didn’t change anything. My daughter told them how her “paci’s” where hurting her teeth and how she got to pick out a stuffy to sleep with if she wanted. She took great naps and slept through the night pacifier free!!
Friday, we told her if she had another good nap and slept through the night we would go get a treat Saturday morning for breakfast to celebrate no more “paci’s”. Well, on Saturday morning, we got up and headed to our local family owned coffee shop for her to pick out a cake pop! And, to our surprise, they had a family own cotton candy vendor there too for the day so she had fruity pebbles cotton candy for a breakfast treat to celebrate too!
We are so happy to be closing this chapter of having a good night sleep thanks to a pacifier. This is how we said goodbye to “paci” in 7 days. Why am I sharing this?! Well, every child and family is different so what worked for us might work for you or something completely different might be the thing that works for you.
Did you have to say good bye to “paci”? How did that look for your child(ren) and your family?
Creative Mama with a Mission 