Well Zachary's occurred over 5 years...and like I said before it was more a problem caused from us letting him do something too long that made him feel good. He had a paci as a baby and when we tried to get him to sleep through the night the pediatrician at the time told us great advice. Buy like 6, put them in his crib, let him cry himself to sleep. He will find the pacis and be able to put it back in and self sooth...no problem. Well then we started to cut down the number of pacis in bed...slowly mind you. I specifically always felt sleep outweighed the idea of him being paci free. I saw him on days he didn't sleep well and knew that his slept was too important to mess with . He had a lot of sleep issues.
As he started going to school and having therapies I got more and more feedback to get rid of the paci, but I also had no idea how to do it without disrupting his sleep and the rest of the family for that matter. We had thought of last summer, but Brandon was deploying and I was terrified of doing it and having it backfire. Then after he got home we were so busy trying to get the move settled, he was doing well in school and super busy with therapies. Then we said his birthday. But after much talk we realized his birthday was 3 weeks before a big move to a new place. The concern was that he would associate the move with losing his paci and we would have a lot of issues. So again, we put it off. I put it off...it was easier for me and so therefor I didn't push the issue.
Well after a few weeks here we were doing well. Then Zach had a bad day Sunday. He just wasn't listening and did a few things he had been told not to do. I told him that I would take his paci away if he did it again. Always has been an empty threat. Until Sunday. I did it. I meant it and I did it. And amazingly he went to bed without it...and slept. He didn't go to bed without asking for it and telling us he wanted it, but he didn't have a massive Zach meltdown. He didn't fly off the handle and scream. He didn't wake up all night crying for it. He slept. Yeah!!!! Last night was a bit harder. He asked for it back and we told him it was gone. It wasn't a one time thing, it was now gone to Paciland...so then I had to come up with where that was since my smarter than me son wanted to know where that was on a map...it is in Antarctica if you are curious. I told him they go there to be recycled for a new baby to get....we are big into recycling here right now. He seemed to accept that well. So anyone who has a picture of their baby with a paci, please email it to me and I can let Zach know your baby got his recycled one. He would love that!!!
I am so proud of him...in many ways this was much harder on me than him. I was scared for him. He has been super tired and crabby today since he didn't go to bed until 9:30 last night...way late for him. I am hopeful that with each day and night he will become more okay without and it bedtime will be easier...lots of excuses last night...needed water, needed bathroom, etc. So we will see...I am proud of him and thankful that he as always handles things better than I can imagine he will and again has shown me what a big boy he is and how special he is. This was the last baby thing I had been holding on to breaking with him. He was potty trained in 3 days when he was 3, but I for some reason wasn't ready to deal with the paci...silly me...Zach can do so much!
So congratulations Zachary. You are ready to be a big boy and head to Kindergarten in August!!!
1 comment:
Congrats to Zach!! Although, I am have your mindset about sleep (still, if the truth is being told). My kids don't have pacis but they have night-nights (blankets) that they'll probably take on their honeymoons. Oh well. At least we all slept when they were young.
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