It's official... my baby boy is paci free! I'm excited and sad at the same time. It's bittersweet I guess.
While we are definitely paci supporting and believing parents, we definitely wanted to say goodbye to the paci before age 2. For sure. With Garrison it happened by accident around 21 months so we aimed for the same age with Austin. We've actually been talking about taking the paci away all summer but didn't want to before our anniversary trip because he'd be spending the night away from home... and we couldn't while he was sick with a little cold because that would just be mean... and we definitely couldn't right before vacation because that would definitely be asking for trouble. Sooo, given that our deadline was age 2 and we really wanted to get it over with during the summer we decided to go for it the day after we got home from the beach.
I cut the tips of the paci's so that they would be "broken" but would still be in sight and still available to see and hold. I just felt like he'd be able to understand and accept that better than a complete disappearance of them altogether.
He decided immediately that he didn't like the broken paci and wanted nothing to do with it, annnnd proceeded to throw a major tantrum at bedtime after I put him in his crib. Major. Jumping up and down, screaming, crying, the whole shebang. He had been doing something similar for a week or two every time we got ready to leave his room at bedtime so we weren't sure if the fit was totally and completely paci related or not. The first 2 nights we were in and out of his room several times until he finally fell asleep a little before 9:00. So not great but not terrible either. We could've been dealing with all nighters so we were thankful things weren't that bad!
Bedtime has definitely been a little harder than naptime but we are finally seeing progress. We changed our approach just a little by staying in his room after putting him in the bed to sing to him or talk to him in an effort to keep him calm. That helped somewhat but he still threw huge fits the second we left. Then we decided when we went back in his room after letting him cry a minute or two that we wouldn't pick him up (therefore having to eventually put him down again leading to another crying fit) but we'd just sit in the rocking chair and talk to him or sing to him.
Last night was our first successful night of me only having to go back in once and him falling asleep by 8! Yaaaay! Then today at naptime he cried when I left but it stopped after 20 seconds or so and he went right to sleep. I am soo grateful. It was hurting my heart to have him cry and scream and throw tantrums over and over again. Now we're just hoping and praying that things keep improving!
And here's a quick potty training update:
Austin is going to the potty when he wants to go to the potty. Ha! At this point I'm not forcing him to I'm just asking him if he has to go and reminding him not to go on Buzz or Woody or Mater (whoever is on his pull-up). We always try to go in the morning and before we leave the house and every night before bath time and he's done really well getting the hang of it... he just doesn't stop playing or eating to go. Those things are too important. =) Thankfully he isn't afraid to poop in the potty and he knows exactly what to do when he gets on the potty, he just isn't fully trained yet.
We'll probably try big boy underwear once or twice before school starts just to see if that makes a difference. I know it's not realistic for him to be trained by August 12th (our first day of school) but I really want him almost there. I keep having to remind myself that it'll be fine either way and that he's not even 2 yet. Plus I'm super proud of him already!
I think that sums up our paci and potty update. Journal entry complete. I know my boys will appreciate this so much one day. Haha. =)
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