We've always been a proponent of the paci, but only in the crib for naptime and bedtime. It was never a problem, and yes, we have known for a while now that it needed to go, but it's just one of those things that we thought we would deal with later and since he never had it out in public, did it really matter? It was security for him and helped him get to sleep, and I hated the thought of the day we had to take it away.
Ever since moving to the big boy bed, it has become a bit more of an issue. Hudson would bring the paci downstairs with him every morning and while we we would make him go put it on the stairs or back in his bed, he started to give us some pushback on it. The worst was in the afternoons though, when we got home from work/school. Hudson started telling me that he was going "night-night" and would go to his big boy bed and get the paci, and taking it away resulted in a fit. On Wednesday, I had had enough! I guess I was in a bad mood, who knows, but I did not want to deal with it anymore!
The middle of a work week was not what I had envisioned when I thought about taking the paci away, but that's the way it happened! I got so mad that afternoon that I just took it away and told him it was gone forever and the garbage men were picking it up on Thursday (we have been saying for months and months that he was going to give the paci's to the garbage men, so he knew what I was talking about). I kind of had a feeling it would make a reappearance that night at bedtime though--I didn't want to lose a night of precious beauty sleep and we were ALL still trying to catch up from the wedding last weekend.
Bedtime came and it was heartbreaking! I told myself that I was not going to back down on it, even though after about an hour, Joel told me to just give him the paci so he could go to sleep. He was NO help! I laid in the other twin bed in the room with him and just sobbed and sobbed. I felt so bad for taking it away. I felt like the worst mother. I think I also started feeling some guilt about Harrison coming along and taking some of the attention away from Hudson, and it just made me sad to think about how Hudson might feel in a couple of months. It was all those things and emotions hitting me at once! Who knew a silly paci could do all that?!?!?
He struggled and cried over it, and was so restless, but I stayed strong! I just kept telling him how much I loved him and what a big boy he was. And finally, he fell asleep. We didn't hear from him all night and he was happy as a clam the next morning. He even told me that his paci had gone to the garbage man and that he was a big boy!
The next night, Joel put him to bed with no problems! It was easy! He didn't even ask for it. Yesterday was my day off with Hudson and in the morning, we were talking about it and Hudson asked me if I was going to take Ra-Ra (his BELOVED dog that he sleeps with every night) away and give him to the garbage man too. Talk about a dagger in the heart! I guess he thought I was going to take it all away--so sad! I reassured him that I was not taking Ra-Ra away and he could sleep with him forever if he wanted to!
Unfortunately, we have had no success in the nap department without the paci, so we've had a rough couple of days. He has taken naps at school without it for months, so I know that he'll soon get adjusted.
I think we learned our lesson with this though. We won't wait until Harrison is 2 1/2 to take the paci away! While it wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be for Hudson, it would have been much easier on ME to do it earlier. :) Now, let's just hope he doesn't regress when Harrison gets here and start stealing Harrison's paci's!
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