the day Paci visited the landfill.

Though I know we were doing the right thing by taking it away.  It felt more like self induced family torture.  I can't help but wonder if leaving them to cry over something your causing doesn't plant that first seed of teenage rebellion.

 Three weeks ago Henry awoke early in the morning crying and looking for his paci for the second morning in a row.  I decided at almost 2 years old we can no longer be reliant upon something to make him sleep soundly. 

So, I cut a whole in his paci and that afternoon gave it to him for his nap.  (I saw this tip on instagram a few months ago from our friend Busy and the Beans, and knew I needed to remember it for the future)  “It’s boken mommy, paci broken.”  Oh goodness!  That’s not good!  *wink wink  Well you try and get some sleep. 

I made sure he had his trusted “banky” and left him to fall asleep; which happened after about 15 minutes of him talking to himself about broken paci and then fell asleep with it out of his mouth. 

When he woke up we talked about what happens to things when they are broken.  I showed him a broken cup, a broken lotion bottle, and straw and we through them all away.  So I asked him what we should do with paci, and he replied after a long pause “throw it away.”

And he did.

That night he went to sleep in the same way he did for nap, we talked about it, acknowledged it and then off to sleep he went. 

*Could it really be that easy?

 

Day 2 -He awoke earlier than normal asking about paci’s whereabouts.   I reminded him that it broke and that we threw it away.  We did our usual Wednesday morning ritual of watching the garbage trucks in all their glory, only this time we talked about what was in our trash cans.  Bye Bye paci, he waved as the garbage truck rolled on.  It was almost sad as if he was saying goodbye to a good friend.

Nap- he fought but eventually went down.

Night- unadulterated torture.  For 40 minutes he cried and screamed.  I knew that he was safe, and that he was literally just mourning the loss of his beloved paci  but oh how sad and awful it made me feel.

Day 3- “Where’s paci?”  “It boken, garbage truck mommy.”  Yep, yep your right.  It’s gone. 

Nap- went well.

Night- Cried for 20 min and then fell soundly to sleep

Day 4- Same old broken paci conversations but a great easy nap and 5 min of night time crying, however he awoke twice in the night and cried a few min and went back to sleep. 

Day 5 – All was well other than a few night wakings.

I’m so glad that we did it, and although he still asks about paci from time to time when he wakes up in the mornings we are completely over the loss.  Yes, gone are the baby days of a paci; and we are simply one step deeper into having a little boy.  My baby boy.  Always.