Paci Party '09

Everyone I can think of calls pacifiers binky's. For some reason we Jespersen's call them paci's. Whatever the name, our little Jane enjoyed a good pacifier. For the past year and a half or so she has only been allowed to have her paci in her crib for nighttime or nap, or if she was just upset enough she would lay down in her crib with her paci and get some R&R time by herself. And of course there were times we would try to use it to our advantage on long car rides and on our vacation as you saw. I know there are a lot of differing opinions of people I know ranging from, "You should never let your child be comforted by plastic in the first place", to "Who cares how long they use it? They'll give it up eventually." I am definitely in the "Do WHATEVER it takes to get your kid to sleep" camp. Yet I knew that someday I would have to wean her of the habit and have always feared doing it. But Matt and I got to talking and we decided we were just going to have to do it and we may as well do it now. I will say I was quite surprised by my reaction, which I am completely blaming on pregnancy hormones although in reality I am just weird. After accepting the fact that we were indeed going to be taking her pacifiers away from her I.....CRIED! I know, I don't get it. I remember saying things like, "But she loves it so much and we're taking it from her." and "It's the last baby thing she has." (Wait a second, she still sleeps in a crib....). And then from a more practical side I was just plain scared of losing sleep! And even after the initial few bad nights what if she no longer took naps? Or what if she no longer slept in until 9? How could I survive? :)

But I was brave and I decided that March 23, 2009 I would throw Jane the Paci Party of all Paci Party's. For the few days leading up to the party I talked to Jane about what was going to happen. How we were going to have cake and presents and balloons because she was a big girl now and was ready to throw her pacifiers away. She seemed down with the idea, although after mentioning the word cake I'm not sure how much she listened to the rest. When I or others would ask Jane what she was going to do at her paci party she would respond, "Throw my paci's away." One day I asked her what we were going to do on Monday and she said, "Happy Birthday Paci's. Throw my paci's away. That's silly." But on Monday morning I laid down by her in the morning and explained in detail what it meant to be throwing her pacifiers away--how they would go bye-bye and that they would be all-gone. She got a little concerned and said, "I NEED my paci."

So, on Monday I told her that we needed to go to the store because I had to buy some things for her paci party. A half hour later I was putting her in the car and she said, "I need ice cream and two cakes for paci party." I hadn't thought of ice cream so I'm glad she mentioned it. I made the cake, put up 2 balloons, and wrapped the dollar store presents while Jane napped and sucked away on her paci for the last time.

She was so excited when she saw her party she kept asking when Dad would be home. Finally the big moment arrived. She sat up in a chair in front of the cake, chucked her four pacifiers into the trash can without a second thought and started in on the frosting.



Then she dug into her presents:





The party was a success but the real challenge was still ahead of us! She initially went to bed okay and may have asked for her paci once but I can't remember. She did, however, want to take each and every present into bed with her as if saying, "If I can't have my paci you're at least going to give me these." So we said Goodnight and didn't hear from her for about an hour. Could it be? A miracle? Then I heard some crying and went in there. She was finally getting tired which I guess made her realize that she wanted her paci after all. She never really seemed to ask for her paci like she expected us to get them but it was more like she simply wanted to let us know "I NEED my paci." One time she said sadly, "Throw my paci away, I need it." But she finally fell asleep around midnight. And you know, the rest of the week wasn't too bad. There were a couple times she didn't nap. And there were a couple nights she cried. Especially after climbing onto her chair and going to get her pacifier only to remember that she had thrown them all away. But the last couple nights she hasn't mentioned her paci's and she's even fallen asleep at nap time too. Our little Jane is all grown up!