Pacifier Free

This weekend, after multiple previous attempts, we successfully got rid of Anna's pacifier!  Sam has been pacifier free for months now (since our first attempt), but Anna just wouldn't budge.  Rather than suffering though days of waking up every hour at night without the pacifier, we'd give up and give it back to her in the past.  I was convinced that, like the swaddle, she would be stubborn and hold onto it as long as she wanted to.  Then, like the swaddle, one day, she'd just finally be okay without it.  And so that's the way it was.

We've never been huge pacifier addicts around here (we call it a Nuk, even though we used Mam pacifiers), and have only used them during sleep for over a year- starting probably sometime around 6 months.  I can't really remember when we stopped using them while they were awake.  We never brought pacifiers to daycare once they started going around 6 months old, so we knew they could nap without pacifiers outside of our house.  Our original goal was to completely eliminate Nuk usage by one year old.  Anna gave hers up for good the weekend before she became 17 months old. 

Sam never seemed bothered by not having a pacifier himself anymore but seeing one in Anna's mouth.  He liked to play the "I took it from you" game, but only because he thought it was fun, not because he actually wanted her pacifier.  He'd always shove it back at her once he got it out of her mouth anyway.  In fact, at some point he understood that the "Nuks" were Anna's, and would often give them to her or shove them in her mouth at the beginning of nap time too.  If they were especially chatty before going to sleep, sometimes one would end up in Sam's crib by morning (by Anna passing one over the crib side to him), but once we took it away from him, he never tried to really suck on a pacifier anymore, even though they were around.

So back to our final attempt.  Since Sam and Anna were at daycare last Monday through Wednesday and didn't nap with pacifiers there, we thought it would be a great chance to try again without Anna's Nuk at home.  First, we did naps without Anna's Nuk on Thursday, but let her have it that night.  The nap went fine.  Then Friday after no Nuk at nap, we tried a Nuk-less bedtime.  It did take Anna a little longer to fall asleep, but over all not too shabby.  She had no overnight wake ups, and just woke up pretty early for her the following morning.  She woke around 5:30 am, but was able to fall back asleep for a little while.  While the before-7-am wake up was not her typical 8 am lately, I was pretty thrilled that it went as well as it did.  Saturday night was similar: a little longer to fall asleep than normal and no overnight wake ups.  BUT she woke up at 5:30 am Sunday morning and would not go back to sleep. 

The early wake up was not completely lack-of-pacifier related... we discovered later than day that we had the unfortunate timing of getting rid of her pacifier right before her next molar is cutting.  Poor Sweet Pea is teething worse than she ever has before.   She was cranky all morning, slept badly at nap, and continued throughout Sunday as one big hot teething and overtired mess.  I do think she probably would have woken up at 5:30 am even if she had her pacifier, but I'm guessing she would have been able to go back to sleep with it.  She is still wearing her amber teething necklace while awake, and I do believe it helps- but molars are just in a difference category of teething.  Can you just imagine how it feels to have that flat side of tooth trying to push through solid gums, tearing the gums as they move?  Poor babies.

This morning, the same thing happened- she woke at 5:30 am a crying teething mess and she was cranky and overtired all day.  I am wistful for those 9 am wake ups that we had earlier this summer!  I'd even love the 8 am ones!  Heck, at this point, I'd feel pretty good if she made it to 7 am.

I still think our pacifier removal was successful, because she is sleeping through the night.  I do think if she still had it, it would help her through those early morning hours, but at this point- they are all in the trash and I'm not getting new ones.  Hopefully this teething episode will be over quickly.  Waking up at 5:30 am is really destroying our routine.  I cannot bear waking Sam up when she gets up that early because he's always needed more sleep than she does.  She cannot make it from 5:30 am to noon with no nap, but really struggles to take a second nap in the afternoon if she takes one in the morning.  I'm crossing my fingers for later than 5:30 am tomorrow!