Goodbye Plug

Okay, so it's gone. As far as Kelton goes, the plug (aka pacifier) is no more. And I just have to say, I love those things, until I have to take them away. The night of Kelton's birthday was the last time he got to have it.

First of all, I was content to just let him keep it. He only used it to go to sleep. Every night (or naptime) he would calmly and quietly go to sleep with his blanket... and his plug. But he's getting a little old--meaning I was starting to feel embarrassed if anyone saw him with it--and here's the thing. In a little less than three months, we are going to have another baby in the house, who, if I have any control, will be using a pacifier. So Kelton would have access to a pacifier anytime he felt like stealing from his brother, and then it would be impossible to take his away for good. Because I've learned that the only way to get something like that out of mind is to first get it out of sight. So this is the reason why Kelton no longer needs a plug...and why we as parents stuck with it...night after night after night...

Night #1: He cried. Of course. Expected. Knew he would. It sounded like the poor kid had just lost his best friend. Then I remembered that Kelton has never--not even as a baby--been able to cry himself to sleep. Crap, I hadn't factored that into this whole process. So, end result? Kelton cried so hard and got so tired that he eventually threw up, screamed even harder when he realized that I was going to give him a bath, finally calmed down and was held by daddy until he fell asleep. It was about 10:00 by that time. He normally goes to bed at 7:00. We almost caved in. It's not worth cleaning up throw up every night just to have him pacifier free. But we didn't do it. I'm a firm believer in making sure a 2 year old knows that you mean what you say. If you say, "no plug" then give it to them, they store that info away for later use and it just makes it harder to take away the next time. Kids are too smart to not be consistent as a parent.

He never threw up again. We did something to help him--not too sure it worked--but I think it did help for the first few days. We took one of his pacifiers and cut a little bit of the tip off. Doing this defeats the whole purpose of a pacifier because if there is a hole in the end, you can't get suction. So he wouldn't be able to suck on it, but at least he would have one in his possession and wouldn't feel like we had just ripped it away from him. After a few days of that we just stopped giving it to him because it started making him mad. He knew it was useless and would just throw it.

So we had a few days where he was just fine as long as one of us just stayed in the room. Sometimes he'd fall asleep quickly, but most times, not so much. So that got ridiculous real fast. Then we just started putting him down and leaving. And now finally, after about 10 days, he goes to sleep pretty quickly--like he used to. Well, not quite like he used to. He still cries when we put him down but it only lasts for less than 5 minutes--and then, miraculously, he falls asleep! With no plug!! Now we just need to move him out of the crib, teach him to use the toilet.... yeah, I think I just might wait until he's old enough to figure it out on his own.