Ha! Hahahaha. Haha. Ha.
I did really well with that decision at first. Nothing else had gone the way I planned, but by golly I was going to succeed with this whole "no paci" thing. It lasted 12 hours. The night she was born she started crying. That's pretty typical of newborns; the crying. I reached over and got her out of the little plastic bassinet (which is exceedingly difficult after having a c-section) and tried to nurse her. Nope. I changed her diaper. I gave her kisses. Still crying. My wonderful husband, who was sleeping about 3 feet away from me, didn't wake up for any of this. I didn't know what to do. I began to panic. My newborn baby must hate me. I yelled for Jordan, who finally got up. "There is a pacifier in that bag they gave us. Can you find it?" He found it. We plugged up the furious newborn. Evie slept for 7 hours.
After that I decided that pacifiers are pretty darn awesome. Evie LOVED them. But I knew I didn't want her having them after her first birthday. When she was about 15 months old, I was 6 months pregnant, and I tried to wean her off them. She cried for half an hour, and since I am a giant softy pants I couldn't deal with it and decided I would wean her off them later. But I wouldn't let her have them after her second birthday.
Catherine was born when Evie was 18 months old, and I had again decided to avoid the pacifier. For no other reason than so I wouldn't have to wean her off it later. I think I lasted three hours before I gave her one. But Catherine was different than Evie. She never really liked them. She would take them if she was really hungry and I needed her to wait a minute so I could nurse her, and she would take them to sleep. But she was never attached to them like Evie.
Evie's second birthday came and went, and I hadn't taken her paci yet. It started to annoy me. She asked for it constantly. People were starting to ask when she was going to give it up. And we tried to take it away. This Christmas I told Evie that Santa was going to come and take all her pacis to give to babies who need them, and leave her presents. Well, now she hates Santa Claus and she still had the pacifier. We tried just taking them from her. We tried cutting them. Nothing. Nothing was working.
Now Catherine had pretty much given hers up around her birthday, but then she decided to get 8 teeth at once (I'm not exaggerating, the girl popped 8 teeth in less than two months... four of them were molars) so she started taking one again.
I hit a wall the other day. I am 10 weeks pregnant. Evie will be three in March. Catherine has gotten more attached to hers and will no longer sleep without it. Pacis have got to go. Catherine was easy. I dipped hers in lemon juice a couple times and she was done. Nope. No more. Not touching that thing anymore.
I did the same with Evie's and she demanded I wash it off. I did, but quickly dipped it in lemon juice again. "Mommy, my paci icky!" "Really? That's weird. You know, Mommy's paci got icky when she got to be a big girl. You must be too old for one now!" She seemed accept that answer, but wasn't too happy with it.
That night (Thursday) I laid Catherine down and she cried for half an hour. I went in to check on her and she was sitting in the corner of her crib clinging to her stuffed Nemo and crying. It was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen. So I rocked her for another half an hour until she fell asleep, then laid her down... and she woke up as soon as she touched the crib. But unlike the first time, she fussed for about two minutes then fell asleep.
Evie was difficult, too. She didn't cry or throw a fit, but she didn't get to sleep until midnight. I sat with her in her room, and she asked for her paci, and finally just passed out. She slept all night. Catherine got up 4 times.
We just got our tax return, so I ordered Evie a bike and Catherine a tricycle as their big girl rewards. They haven't had pacis since Thursday, and Evie now goes down pretty well without one, and Catherine isn't getting up as much at night. Though she's still getting up more than she was when she had the paci. I'm sure it will get better.
I'm very happy they are finished with them, and I have again decided not to give the new baby a paci. I'll probably last a whole 45 minutes before giving in.
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