My Baby is Almost Gone...

John and I decided that it was time for Ryan to give up his pacis when he slept. The main reason for this is that we wanted to make sure he was over them before the new baby got here…we have vivid memories of Kylie trying to steal Josh’s pacis when we was first born because she had just given hers up. We’re hoping that if he has 3 months without them that he won’t try to sneak them when the baby comes home.

So Friday night we told Ryan that he was all done with pacis, and that if he slept without them, he would get a new toy the next day. He told us that he wanted a new Percy train. So we took him up to the crib and laid him down with his Elmo and Cookie pacis only. Now some history about these pacifiers – on the way to church one morning when Ryan was little, I realized that we had forgotten his pacifiers. I knew that they were vital because he was going through a really rough patch in the nursery, so we stopped at the drug store on the way and I went in to get him some new ones. Unfortunately, they didn’t have his kind, so I grabbed this pack that had an Elmo and a Cookie Monster pacifier in it, knowing how much he liked these characters, I thought they would work. When I got back to the car and put one in his mouth, he immediately spit it out. He hated the shape of these pacifiers! So it has been a long running joke with him…when I lay him down at night, I would say “Elmo in mouth?” and he would say “noooo” and then I would say “Cookie in mouth?” and he would say “nooo,” followed by either “green one” or “blue one” (his favorite pacis). So in conclusion, he hated these pacifiers in his mouth.

When I laid him down Friday night, he immediately started crying. After a few minutes, John went in and calmed him down and he fell asleep. John went in to check on him about an hour later and the little stinker had Elmo in his mouth! I felt horrible knowing that the kid was so desperate that he stuck his hated paci in his mouth, so I went in to switch it for him, but when I pulled it out, he was so tired that he didn’t even notice. So I left without giving him his good pacis.

The next morning we wake up realizing that he didn’t wake up at all and thought the night had turned out to be a success after all. I heard John go into his room when he woke up and say “why do you have Cookie in your mouth?” Ugghhh! What a stinker! So we went about our day and he napped in the car (he never has a paci in the car), so we were back at it Saturday night. This time there were NO pacis in the crib! We laid him down and he went right to sleep and slept through the whole night! Again he napped in the car during the afternoon, and then we went to get him his new toy. He ended up getting a little Thomas take-along track set that he loves!

We laid him down last night and he cried himself to sleep (about 5 minutes). He woke up twice in the middle of the night (John’s been getting him for me which is so nice!), but fairly easily went right back to sleep. We’ll see how he does during his nap for Danielle today :)

So outside of diapers, there are no more signs of a little baby in my house :( I’m so excited that he’s growing up and learning so many new things, but at the same time, it’s so sad for me. Thankfully I have another baby coming to fill the baby void…I don’t know what I’ll do when this one starts growing up and there’s no little baby after it…