Paci or Thomas?

We are kind of strict about the use of pacifiers in our house. Hubby has a fear (based on several observations of family and friends) of our kids using a binky when they’re 3 or 4. So he’s had a pretty strict timeline of use and it has actually worked out well.

Unlimited use of a pacifier until 18 months old. Then they can only have it when they are sleeping. Around 2 it’s time to get rid of it completely. With my daughter, she easily gave up the “unlimited use” at 18 months (although I vividly remember her pulling one out of the diaper bag at almost exactly 18 months singing “I got a beebee” {what she called it} knowing that she wasn’t supposed to have it). Then when she was around 2 she wanted to lay down on the couch with Grandma one night at bedtime. So we told her that if she did that, she couldn’t have her beebee. She was fine with that, went down on the couch and actually fell asleep. She asked for it the next night, but we kept telling her she was so big the night before and didn’t need it. And we took her to the toy store and bought her a laptop. She never used one again.

My son has followed in her footsteps. He loves his “paci” (his term for it…no matter how many times I would call it a beebee, he would call it a paci). He’s gotten to where he has to have one in his mouth and one in his hand when he’s sleeping, and he will tell us, “2 pacies.” He’s so good about sleep, when we ask him if he’s tired, he’ll say “get 2 pacies, go in crib.” He was very good at 18 months about giving it up during the day. However, the getting rid of it at 2 was really worrying me because he loves his pacies and crib.

Because of his pacies he gets rashes around his mouth that won’t go away, no matter what goop I put on it. So last night when I was brushing his teeth, when the rash looked the worst I’ve ever seen, I showed him his face in the mirror and told him that he had boo-boos because of his paci. I told him that if he slept without it then I would take him to the store and buy him something Thomas today.

He actually went to sleep without it and did not even whimper. The trouble came at 4:00 in the morning. I could tell he really uses that thing to sleep! He was up pretty much from 4:00 – 5:30 when I finally brought him into our room (and this is the child that pretty much always sleeps through the night). He fell right asleep between hubby and me.

But you know what? He never once asked for his paci.

When I get home tonight we will be loading up in the car and going to buy something Thomas.