Ben has loved his pacifier since he could figure out how to keep it in his mouth as a baby. He has only used it at nap and bedtime for the last 6 months or longer, but asks for it with regularity on his way to bed. Since we have settled in and somewhat adjusted to having Elizabeth join our family, we decided it was time to change things up and work on leaving our best friend, "Paci", behind.
We started by letting his teachers know that this was coming and to see if they had any tips. Were we ever surprised when their response was, "Ben takes a pacifier?" We have been leaving one in his cubby faithfully, but apparently he hasn't used it since February when he moved to his upstairs classroom. After learning this, we asked Ben if he used a pacifier at school to see what he had to say about it. His reply was, "Noooooooo," in his sing songy voice. You could tell that he knew he was busted.
We asked if he would like to stop using it at home too. Dumb question. We explained that he would stop using it by the weekend and we would package all of the pacifiers up and trade them in for a prize. Build a Bear was going to be the reward! Smaller prizes were offered each night before the "mandatory" removal of the pacifiers. None of them were enough to entice the early goodbye.
Ben's first night without his pacifier was sad for all of us. What is normally around 5-10 minutes for him to fall asleep took about an hour and a half and there were lots of tears. We all survived though and celebrated at Build a Bear the next day making "Jokey" the monkey. Jokey wears a cool football uniform and sleeps with Ben each night. He also has Ben's last pacifier sewn inside for safe keeping. Since the first night Ben has not cried about his pacifier. Falling asleep takes longer than normal, but that will probably pass with time too.
You were good to us, Paci. We will never forget you! :)
We started by letting his teachers know that this was coming and to see if they had any tips. Were we ever surprised when their response was, "Ben takes a pacifier?" We have been leaving one in his cubby faithfully, but apparently he hasn't used it since February when he moved to his upstairs classroom. After learning this, we asked Ben if he used a pacifier at school to see what he had to say about it. His reply was, "Noooooooo," in his sing songy voice. You could tell that he knew he was busted.
We asked if he would like to stop using it at home too. Dumb question. We explained that he would stop using it by the weekend and we would package all of the pacifiers up and trade them in for a prize. Build a Bear was going to be the reward! Smaller prizes were offered each night before the "mandatory" removal of the pacifiers. None of them were enough to entice the early goodbye.
Ben's first night without his pacifier was sad for all of us. What is normally around 5-10 minutes for him to fall asleep took about an hour and a half and there were lots of tears. We all survived though and celebrated at Build a Bear the next day making "Jokey" the monkey. Jokey wears a cool football uniform and sleeps with Ben each night. He also has Ben's last pacifier sewn inside for safe keeping. Since the first night Ben has not cried about his pacifier. Falling asleep takes longer than normal, but that will probably pass with time too.
You were good to us, Paci. We will never forget you! :)
