De-Pacification
We are binky free in our house these days and loving it!
We went took a weekend trip up to the mountains a couple weeks ago, and like I mentioned before, I packed everything we owned for the 3 days we’d be gone. Everything, that is, except a pacifier.
Oops.
Out of the 42 pacifiers we have lying around the house at any given time, I forgot to throw even just one into Sophia’s bag. I was bummed when I realized this miles down the freeway when I had hoped to pop one into baby’s mouth for an instant nap-inducer. But I felt even worse when we were making our way up the windy curves of the mountain when the pacifier would have made the ear-popping altitude a little easier to bear.
But here is where my stubbornness comes in handy. There was no way I was breaking down and buying more pacifers when we got to our destination. It’s not that I am opposed to the idea of a baby using a pacifier. (I know this can be quite the heated discussion among parents!) I had fully endorsed the use of a binky for Sophia’s first year. But then 12 months came and went, and at 16 months I was having a hard time figuring out how to rid our lives of this (seemingly) necessary little accessory.
Even though Sophia was only allowed to have a paci in her crib for sleeping after her first year, I’d still felt a little twinge of fear when I realized my packing omission and had decided we’d just go the weekend without the use of her soothing little friend. I think it’s the part of me that always kept an extra pacifier in my purse or jacket pocket when we’d be out running errands. It was my secret little comfort knowing I had one nearby in case an unwanted fit broke out, but I also secretly knew I’d probably never really use it.
So when the weekend came and went with no major upset over the missing pacifier, we knew we had found an easy way to rid ourselves of it completely. We quickly rounded up the ones we could find in the house when we got home and put them far away from little hands — most in the trash, a couple in mommy’s safekeeping for posterity’s sake. I’m sure she’ll come across one from time to time — those things had a knack for always dropping under beds and behind random furniture — but thankfully she won’t need it anymore for comfort.
Another era has come to an end. But this one, I can say, I was ready for. However cute she was as a little baby sucking away on her pacifier, she makes an even cuter toddler trying to figure out what to do with a mouthful of new teeth. We don’t need you, dear pacifier, in the way for that. Thanks, though, for the peace while it lasted!
We haven’t had the pacifier issue to deal with, but the getting off the bottle was interesting. We finally succeded when a hole was bitten in the nipple and we threw all bottles away because they were “broke” (we pulled them out of the trash and saved for next kid when not looking). We still get a puppy dog look once in a while we he walks by the trashcan and points at it and says “broke”.