The Moment You Realize You'd Sell Your Soul to Give the Pacie BACK

Little Man loves his pacie.  I've always described it as "baby Valium" for him.  When he's stressed, tired, scared, you name it--in goes the pacie and you can see him visibly relax.  He's been pretty attached to it since he was around nine months old.  Before that, he could take it or leave it.  But since then, he'd keep it in his mouth 24-7 if you'd let him.

We've weaned him down considerably, to just having it at sleep times.  But, we recently decided that it was time to--literally--pull the plug.  There are as many suggestions for HOW to get rid of the pacie as there are kids in the world.  From Hubby's friend who remembered his father unceremoniously yanking out his brother's pacie and tossing it out the car window to Little Man's gal pal at day care who was dreading her 3rd birthday because she'd been told Tinkerbell wouldn't bring pacies to 3-year-olds anymore.  One bright idea I'd read was to seal up the last remaining pacie inside a Build-a-Bear.  Sounded great--just touchy-feely enough to prevent an overload of mommy guilt, but still be effective.

So, off we went to take a family trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop.  With a whopping dose of "You're SUCH a big boy now!" and a little give-him-whatever-he-wants-to-keep-him-happy, he proudly marched out of the store with Pluto, the pacie bearing dog, and a pack of Silly Bandz (seriously, what IS the deal with those things??).  The first night, as expected, was rough.  He took forever to go to sleep and woke up multiple times with difficulty going back to sleep.  I guess if someone told me to go to bed without any blankets or pillows, I'd eventually go to sleep, but not without difficulty.  But, he remained super-proud of his big boy status and carried Pluto nearly everywhere (after first determining there was no zipper through which to retrieve his beloved pacie).

Fast forward almost 2 weeks...he's now sleeping ok at night, although still taking a while to go to sleep.  But naptimes are killing me!!  Before the pacie extraction, he'd drop off to sleep right away and doze for a good 2.5 hours before wandering down the stairs bleary-eyed and sweaty-faced.  Now?  He'll toss and turn for at least 30 minutes before finally giving in to an annoyingly brief nap of 45 minutes or so.  I'd be more grateful for the break time if it wasn't for the monster-child who appears a couple of hours later due to Lack of Sufficient Nap Syndrome.

Seriously, moms trying to do the Cry It Out thing with an infant think they have it tough?  Ha!  Just wait until you find you've voluntarily sacrificed that nap you worked so hard to establish in the first place!  Then the person needing Valium will be you!