The Paci: Who Needs It?!!?

Everybody said things would be so different between your first and your second child.  You become more relaxed...you understand things differently and I'd have to agree.  And my biggest case-in-point...taking the paci away from my girls.

With Caroline, we slowly weaned her over the course of time.  She went from having it whenever she wanted it, to just in the car & the crib, to just in the crib, to just night time, not nap time, etc.  Not only did it take the course of a month or two, we had some major relapses and then the biting started so we had to try again 6 months later until she grew out of the biting.

With Anna, it was totally different.  I was driving home last Friday night and I told myself "Enough is enough."  I went home, Wally & I gathered all the pacis we could see, hid them and that was it.  Done and done.  Anna's not talking quite as much as I would like for her to and I can't help but wonder if it's due to the paci.  So, maybe this will also help with the speech development.

In the beginning, I even wondered if she needed a paci. She never could keep it in and we went through a couple of different brands before we went back to my favorite Nuk paci.  It wasn't until we realized she needed her tongue clipped at 6 months old did we figure out why she couldn't keep the paci in.  Having that procedure done really helped.

Her paci became one of her two best friends...the other being her Lamby.  The two went together like peanut butter & jelly.  If she had one, she needed the other.  And I was fine with that.  I was (am) happy that she has her comfort items that are so close to her heart.

Uh, how much cuter would this picture be if it weren't for that durn paci!  But, hey, if not for that, then she probably would have wrangled herself out of Caroline's choke hold to find it.

But, I had to draw the line when she started talking with it in her mouth.  That is one of my biggest pet peeves ever and I knew exactly how to fix it.

The first night - she cried for 10 minutes before falling to sleep on her own.  Saturday, Sunday & Monday nights - not a peep out of her.  Nap times have been a little harder at home, but her teacher said yesterday that it was as smooth as it could be.  No fussing, she went straight to sleep and slept for well over 2 hours!!!  (A side note - why does she sleep 2 hours at school, but 40 minutes at home? GRRR!!)

I still have a handful of pacis in her dresser drawer, but that's just more for back up in case she starts biting like her big sister did.  I had many almost-moment-of-weaknesses this weekend where I thought that I was going to cave and give her a paci out of desperation - but I prevailed!!!

Seriously, why would you want to cover up that big, beautiful smile!!?!?!?