So long, farewell, aufwiedersein, goodbye

I guess that I’ve put it off long enough. We finally took away Eli’s pacifier. At his 18-month appointment, I asked the pediatrician by what age we should take it away. Dr. Boudreau just stared at me for a minute, and then said, “Now would be a good age for that.” I have a feeling he was thinking that we should have taken it away a long time ago. But Eli was just so attached to his binkie that I was not ready to deal with the separation. I really just try to avoid confrontation any time I can, because, let’s face it, Eli is a toddler and we sometimes have whole days that are nothing but confrontation. So I set the deadline that when Eli turned 2, the binkie went bye-bye.

January 8th, the day after he turned 2, Eli took his first nap without a pacifier. OK, I cheated because he fell asleep in the car, so he really did not even realize that his binkie was missing. That night, when we got to the point in his bedtime routine that he would normally get his pacifier, we did not give it to him… and amazingly his head did not explode! I’m not sure he even noticed. In fact, he has only mentioned the binkie once since then.

It has not been smooth sailing completely, because the binkie was his sleep cue. All of the progress that we made transitioning him to a twin bed went right out the window. He goes down for naps relatively easily, but will only sleep for an hour or so. Bedtime is a struggle. He often will not get to sleep until well after 10:00, and then is up early in the morning. I have considered getting rid of his nap altogether just to get him to sleep at night. Without a nap he is actually fine until 4- or 5-o’clock, but after that he is just grumpy. Hopefully all it will take is some time, because I really need his naps, even if it is only for an hour.