No More Pacie

Chris and I have declared war on the pacie, and we will win! While Hayden was in the hospital after his birth, the nurses, of course, asked if we wanted to use a pacie, and our answer was a definite, "YES!" Hayden has always loved them...and so have we. They were great "plugs," as we sometimes called them and helped us get some much needed rest at times. However, the pacie has lately been declaring war on us. In the past month, Hayden has become dependent on his pacie...especially at night. His waking has become more frequent, and everytime he wakes, he thinks he needs the pacie to go back to sleep.

I was reading about it online, and apparently, around 4-5 months of age, babies begin developing associations. One of the big associations they develop are sleep associations. In other words, I need this pacie to be able to go back to sleep. Sometimes, these associations can be good things, but sometimes (like in our case), they can become a problem. On New Year's night, I was up with him every 30-45 minutes during the night, meaning that I was able to sleep for about 15 minutes before he woke up crying and wanting his pacie. And, as all of you parents know, sleep is a very important thing to have to get through the next day.

Chris usually takes night duty two nights during the weekend, and he declared war this morning. He wants Hayden to quit this pacie thing cold turkey and is prepared for two entire nights of screaming if that's what it takes. I thought I might find another idea that might help break Hayden of his pacie addiction, and I think I've found a great idea! An idea that almost seems cruel and inhumane. Break the pacie! Apparently, you can put a hole in the end of the pacie, and the pacie loses its suction....hence, the pacie is broken. Cruel, probably, I know....but I'll be a better parent if I can get some sleep.

When I tried it the first time, I was kind of doubtful that it would work. I gave Hayden the pacie with the hole in it, and within 1 second, he spit it out. He looked at it with a kind of puzzled look, put it in his mouth, and spit it back out. We continued this over and over until he resorted to talking to his pacie. I know we'll probably still have some crying fits, but at least I can give him his pacie...which is what he wants. The pacie is broken, but he gets mad at the pacie instead of being mad at me for not giving it to him.

Hopefully, Hayden will soon get better with finding his thumb, and he can be soothed by that. In the meantime, I introduced a new "pacie" to him...a bear blanket Chris and I bought him before he was born. My niece, Lindsey, had a "green" (a green blanket) that she still sleeps with, and a blanket is much easier to find than a pacie. After about 10 minutes (which seemed like much longer) of screaming at the top of his lungs, Hayden is actually taking a little nap in his crib with his bear blanket. Here's a picture of him napping. The lights are off, but the flash on the camera was on. I think I might safety pin the blanket to his sleep positioner so he can't get it quite that close to his mouth, but I think we are starting to see some success already.

I wrote most of this earlier in the day, but I was trying to load some videos with not much luck. I'll try again tomorrow and add them to the post then. Just a quick update...so far, pretty good. He took a two hour nap this afternoon, and I had to wake him up. It took 30 minutes of violent screaming for him to go to sleep tonight, but he's asleep now. Hopefully, he won't make tonight too difficult. We'll see. :o)