The Castile Family: Parting with the Paci

I admit it, I think there is something super cute about a baby with a paci. Ryan on the other hand feels much different. It isn't so much that he doesn't like a paci, but the fear of an older toddler, still taking the paci in public, was too much for him. So fearful in fact that, just last week Ryan took the paci away! Ok - it was a joint decision, but I never would have had the strength to follow through.

Madison has pretty much had a paci since day one. I pushed for it, I like that she had a strong suck, it gave me a "break" from nursing and we tried to restrict it to only sleepy and very fussy times! Lately, we had been pretty good about keeping the paci for only crib times. So good, that I couldn't find a recent picture of Madison with her paci. Which makes me sad, but I'm pretty sure Ryan wouldn't be very happy if I gave it back to her just to snap a quick picture!

We did the "cold turkey" route with the paci. Ryan had a few days off from work and he took the chance to not only drop her down to one nap (she had been threatening to do this for several days), but to also take the paci away. Hello daddy ~~bootcamp~~ daycare! He tells me she only fussed for a few minutes and my heart wants to believe him! Honestly, it was easier than I anticipated. The first few nights she fussed for a few minutes, but never more than five-minutes! Since then, she's been doing great. She will sometimes do a very pitiful whine/whimper and we can see on the monitor that sometimes in the middle of the night she is "looking" for the paci. I give Ryan a lot of credit. The reality was much less scary than the anticipation and now Madison is paci free.

Ryan also wanted to try taking the lovey away - but I held my ground on that. She loves it, she sleeps great with it and I love my sleep too much at this point. And, I have a friend who still has her lovey! Ryan thinks that might be an issue, but she's pretty normal (love you KH) and if Madison turns out like her I'll be pretty happy. So, the paci is 100% gone and we all survived!!

A look back at the Paci...