Cold Turkey

That’s how we do things around here… and it works for us, or at least it has thus far!  There are times I would like to ease our kids into the next phase of life, but my husband is a very black & white, hot & cold type and I follow his lead on these things.  For example, when Abby Ruth turned 1, the bottle disappeared and so did formula.  In one week we moved from bottles at bedtime to nothing .  This went very smoothly and I realized we  (ok… just me) had been worried for no reason!  So when it came time to put her in a bed, we once again pushed forward and didn’t look back.  Within 3 days she was sleeping in her “big girl bed” at naptime and bedtime – again, no big deal.

So, last week when Tripp hit the 6-month mark, he also arrived at his first “cold turkey” experience – lose the pacifier.  Tom said, “It’s going to be a loud few days,” (as he heads off to work – lol) and that was the understatement of the century!  The first day was pretty rough, Tripp cried quite a bit and it was very difficult for me to withhold the one thing I knew would calm him down.  Day 2 was a little better, and he did get to use the pacifier because we went to the gym (I don’t plan to have a screaming child in public if I can help it!). 

Long story short, that was a week ago and Tripp is pacifier free (at home) and doing great!  I am glad we tackled this hurdle now because soon we will enter the seemingly endless months of teething, and who wants to take a pacifier away from a child who is in pain??  He has continued to use it when we are out (if he gets fussy), but I have already noticed that he needs it less often than he did a week ago – SUCCESS!

A friend asked if I would use the pacifier again with baby #3, and I think I definitely would.  It hasn’t been hard to take away and it made life much easier when he was small.  I will just have to remember that breaking the habit means a few very loud days :-)

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