Plug-be-gone

I think the technical term is "pacifier," but most people have their own name for it.  In our house it is a "plug."  And on Sunday night, we did the unthinkable... we took it away from Damon.  I've done this with three kids and each time I wonder who it is more emotionally difficult for... the child or the parents.  I really didn't want to take it away, but our cut off is two years old.  And we are ready for Damon to be in a toddler bed but needed to get rid of the plug in a contained environment (crib) where he couldn't just get up and walk out because he was upset. 

We employed a technic that failed miserably with Kelton.  We cut the tip of the plug off.

 (We did this when we took it away from Kelton and it made him extremely mad. He would throw it out of the crib then cry for it and then repeat the cycle. It made him so mad that he threw up, and we had to just make it vanish and deal with the crying. It took about a week before he was back to normal without his plug.)

At bedtime we gave Damon the cut plug and said, "Uh, oh... pluggie is broken."  (Damon adds "ie" to the end of nouns he is fond of, and we end up using his words)

Damon laughed.  He thought it was funny!  He repeated a few times "pluggie broken" as a statement of fact, with no sadness in his voice.  We let him hold it in his crib and he went to sleep like normal.  I couldn't believe it.  It was too easy.

But then he woke up at about 11:00 and was inconsolable.  He never once asked for his plug, but I think that was what the problem was.  I think he wakes up during the night and reaches around until he finds his plug and that's how he falls back asleep.  But that didn't work tonight.  And maybe he was awake for a different reason entirely, but the timing was pretty coincidental for it not to be caused by the loss of the plug.

Nap the next day... no problems at all.  At one point as I was putting him down, I could tell he was about to ask for it, but instead I heard him quietly mutter, "broken."  I didn't even give it to him.

Bedtime last night... He said "pluggie broken,"  like he was reminding me.  We went right to sleep and had no troubles.  Same with his nap today.  He actually didn't even mention the broken plug.

So really, this has been a very easy transition.  I think if Damon could describe what has happened with his plug he would say something like, "Well, my plug broke.  It's actually kind of funny because I can stick my finger all the way through it now.  And it looks funny.  I can't use it anymore because it just wouldn't work.  So what do I care if I don't have it anymore.  It's useless."  That really has been his attitude.  It's been great!  Now on to the toddler bed and moving into the "boys" room.  Can't wait to see how Kelton and Damon handle falling asleep in the same room in beds they can both get out of.