Goodbye Paci

It seems as if another step of Jack growing up has sneaked up on me.

When Jack was born early, he immediately showed a preference to a specific kind of pacifier – the soothie that was given to him in the NICU.

As all smart parents do, I immediately ran out and bought a half-dozen of them to have handy around the house. As ALL infants seem to do, he would spit it out only to flail around with his little hands unable to put it back in again.

So, we found the WubbaNub Giraffe. It was the best of both worlds because it had a soothie attached to a little stuffed animal that would sit on Jack’s chest and keep it from rolling away. We bought our first one when Jack was teeny-tiny and bought a couple extras over the years. I knew that someday we’d have to takpacie it away from him, but I convinced myself that he was still little and that day was far, far away.

Well, at his 2 ½ year checkup last week the doctor said the pacifier had to go. Jack was starting to get his back molars and you could already see where his mouth had elongated due to him sucking on the paci.

As it turns out, I had taken off the next day to stay home with Jack so I figured we might as well do it then, since we would be able to sleep in if he was up all night. When we got home from the doctor’s appointment, I reminded him that we had to get rid of the paci.

Jack immediately ran upstairs to grab it and brought it back to me. I braced myself for screams and cries, and snipped the pacifier off the giraffe.

Jack just stared at it for a minute.

Then, he grabbed the paci and stuck it in his mouth. A couple quick seconds later, he removed it, said “goodbye paci” and threw it in the trash.

In the TRASH! I had actually planned to store it in a cabinet in case we needed it later… but no, he trashed it and walked away like a superspy leaving behind an explosion.

What. The. Hell.
Who IS this kid?!

No tears? No cries?
It’s like the pacifier hadn’t been his bedtime companion for the last 2 ½ years.

Afterwards, he told me a couple times that his paci was in the trash, but didn’t really seem very upset about it. The true test was when we got ready for bedtime. Every night he would pop the pacifier in his mouth to suck on while we rocked and read our books. That evening, he grabbed the pacifier-free giraffe and held it tightly. Every so often, he would lift it to his lips and kiss where the pacifier had been attached.

And that was that.

It has been four nights and Jack hasn’t seemed to miss his old friend at all. He slept with the giraffe for the first couple nights – apparently its new name is “Not Paci” – but that’s about it. Yet again, one of those things that was more of a big deal for ME than it was for him.

But as he tells me every time he slowly walks his way down the stairs on his own, “No help mama. I’m a BIG BOY.”

And I guess he is.

 

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7 thoughts on “Goodbye Paci”

  1. My youngest never used a paci or a “binky”.
    My oldest, however, sucked away on hers until she was 4.
    Not all day but was using it at night.
    She gave it up without tears.
    I bought her a lamp from the “binky fairy”.
    A lamp.
    Really?
    A LAMP.
    We still have that lamp.

  2. I love this story! It made me smile, especially the kissing the giraffe part 🙂

    My son ditched his pacifier like it was nothing too! We watched an Elmo video where he stops using a pacifier, that night he put all of his pacifiers in a box and that was it. I had built it up in my head to be much more traumatic than it was.

    Congratulations on your big boy!

  3. This made me tear up. I may have shed a tear. It’s awesome how well Jack handled this! Strong from Day 1! He gets it from his mama.

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