Because You Want To Hear More About The Paci

I apologize for telling you more about my child’s pacifier than you ever wanted to know. But this blog happens to be about my life and that’s pretty much all that’s been going on. That and taxes. I’m sure you’d rather hear about the paci than the taxes.

As you can probably tell from when I waxed philosophical yesterday, it’s been a rough week and a half. Operation No More Bah has taken a bit longer than I’d anticipated, honestly.

Maybe it just seems like it’s taken forever because I’ve been obsessing over it for so long.

I had pretty much chickened out decided that Caedmon wasn’t going to go to Kindergarten with his bah, so I wasn’t going to press the issue. And then I had to be all responsible and take him to the dentist. The dentist was sympathetic, but said that because of the way Caedmon’s teeth were responding to the pacifier, we really needed to get rid of it sooner rather than later.

So I put it off until after Thanksgiving. And then it wasn’t the right time. So I put it off until mid-December. And then it was Christmas and Caedmon was sick. Once he got over the Sickness of Christmas ‘09, I decided that it was now or never.

Although I was leaning toward never.

After much contemplation and agony, I decided that due to Caedmon’s personality and how he responds to things, ditching it cold turkey would be the worst environment imaginable. So I opted for cutting the tip off of the paci.

I figured that once Caedmon discovered his bah didn’t “work” anymore, he’d be ready to give it up. I was wrong.

The first day there was no nap. And Caedmon was pretty distraught over his broken bah. It was SAD, ya’ll. I almost cried. Seriously. He kept asking me to fix it, and I’d tell him I couldn’t. To which my Mom said he’d never think I was capable of fixing anything ever again.

Thanks for the support, Mom.

Thereafter, we’ve been dealing with super short naps (1-1 1/2 hours when he usually sleeps 2+), waking up in the middle of the night sometimes multiple times, waking up super early (some mornings as early as 6) and not going back to sleep. Also general crankiness, tantrums, and fits that come with sleep depravation. And Caedmon’s been cranky too.

It’s getting better, though. I’m still only letting him have the bah at naptime/bedtime and he’s pretty much just been holding it since the first day, only popping it into his mouth occasionally. I’ve now snipped enough off of the pacifier so that he can hardly keep it in his mouth unless he holds it with his hand.

Oh, but Sunday afternoon he was so anti-nap that after talking in his bed for an hour, he began the patented, “Momma, are you?” As I went in to check on him and generally make him angry by telling him he wasn’t getting up, I discovered that the boy had stripped his Dallas Cowboy pants and diaper off and had proceeded to pee all over his bed. I think that in itself could possibly be blamed for the Cowboys’ loss. You know, if I was superstitious. Which I’m not.

But I’m at another decision point. Do I let him keep the bah, just holding it, or do I make him get rid of it all together? I’d really been hoping that by now he would’ve decided it was no good. But he hasn’t. And I’m ready for it to be gone. If you think they’re hard to keep up with normally, when half of the paci is gone it’s even easier to slip down into the cracks of the bed and harder to find in the dark.

So if anybody has any wisdom to offer, please share. Or just hide and laugh. That’s probably what Mom is doing right now.