Pacifier Habit Breaking...I Should Get Myself An Infomercial

So, it's the end of "No More Paci" day one. Here is the breakdown:

Morning nap: went in at 10 minutes to comfort her...almost went in after another 15, but she was already asleep!

Afternoon nap: went right to sleep (I am not making this up)

Bedtime: babbled a few words, then went right to sleep (again, this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth)

Only to add to my amazement is that after Lorelai's morning nap it became very apparent to me that she wasn't feeling well. She never had a full-on fever (99.7), but she was running "warm" on and off all day and had bouts of crankyness. When this began, I had this mental battle in my mind: "Dang...she did great without the thing for her morning nap....I REALLY dont want to give it back to her for the afternoon nap! If I dont give it back to her and she is miserable, do I suck?" I decided to see what happened, and, as you can see, it went great.
It did cross my mind to tell my husband (when he called from texas) that the whole taking-away-the-paci-shebang was going awfully. I probably could have conviced him it was taking such a toll on me that he'd have to cancel his upcomming guys' weekend so I could go to the spa.
This only occurred to me AFTER I told him how proud I was of Lorelai's progress.
I really am proud of her. We've always said that she is an "easy baby" (i guess we need to start saying "easy toddler")and after today, I'd say that title can be etched in stone for her.
I hope that this post doesn't upset moms who have tried to take away the pacifier and it just hasn't worked. Perhaps every kid has a magic age when they are ready to give it up without a fight...and maybe today was that magic age for Lorelai.
BUT!
For just 5 easy installments of $19.95 your child can come to No More Paci Camp. Call me for a free evaluation.

Farewell, Dear Friend

I decided that today would be the day I break Lorelai of the pacifier habit. I just layed her down for her morning nap sans pacifier and told myself to not go back in her room for 10 minutes. Sigh.
My original plan was to stop the pacifier after she got her first few teeth. My favorite parenting book advised getting rid of the paci between 4 and 6 months. I figured that teething would be really rough with the first few teeth and that she'd appreciate having good 'ole paci around for comfort. The first tooth or 2 would probably come at 6 months, so the timing would be perfect. I was kinda right...it did provide her some comfort with those teeth, but the teething was worse with the molars which came AFTER the first few teeth...and she didn't get her 1st tooth until she was like 9 months old!
The other phase which perpetuated the paci use was the screaming phase. Most babies seem to go through this phase where they figure out "Hey! I can SCREAM! SCREAMING at random times for no reason is FANTASTIC! I especially like to do it when we are out in public!!!". No problem...just keep shoving that paci in her mouth.
(pardon me, it has been 10 minutes...)
(ok...wont go back in there for 15 minutes)
Once Lorelai turned a year old, I really started to feel that we could limit the pacifier to just in her crib. This was my personal test to see if she really needed the thing. We ran errands, attended play dates, and went out to dinner without the thing...it never was an issue like I thought it would be. "Ok!", I told myself, "we're keeping up this addiction for nothing!"
I will admit, too, that I want Lorelai to stay a baby forever. If she stops being a baby, then I'll want another one...and I'm not ready for that. Lets face it, seeing your kid with a pacifier fits that "baby" mold...kinda like having a bottle before bed...which I am still doing. Lets not talk about that today.
A few weeks ago, I knew that Tim would be out of town for 3 days, and I thought to myself, "That would be a great time to take away the pacifier!" From what I've read, 3 days seems to be the magic amount of time it takes kids to "get over it" with habits concerning sleep.
You may be asking yourself, "why would she want to do this ALONE?" Eh...I just felt like if I waited for Tim to be home for this then:
1. We would feed off each other's frustration of listening to a baby crying repeatedly.
2. It would waste a weekend. Weekends are for fun, not crying.
3. 3 days would also encompass a work day-either a Friday or a Monday...how would you like to be working in your home office while trying to tune out a crying baby all day? Poor Tim.
4. If I am able to pull this off by myself, I will probably earn myself a nice gift!!!!
(ok...it has been 15 more minutes...wait...she's quiet....SHE'S QUIET!!!!)
Oh baby! this is going better than I thought! I'll blog an update later.