The Paci Fairy

Daniel and I have talked off and on about eventually weaning Noah off of using his paci's to sleep (during nap and bedtime only), but never actually came up with the plan or a timeline for when that would happen. On a whim, crazy me decided that this past weekend was the time --- nevermind the fact that Daniel was out of town for 3 nights ---- I just couldn't believe how disgusting they looked and knew it was time!

These pictures do not really capture how awful they truly look and how many holes have been chewed into the silicone.



Not really having a plan, I remembered that my friend, Brandi, had the Paci Fairy visit her daughter, Zetta Grace, just a few weeks ago and brought her surprises in exchange for her pacis. I looked at Noah's pacis and told him we needed to pack them up for the Paci Fairy and she would bring him a surprise like the tooth fairy (we have a book from the Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist which talks about the tooth fairy, so I knew he was familiar with the concept). Surprisingly, he agreed --- so there was no turning back. We were really doing this. We wrote the Paci Fairy a request with special treats in exchange for the pacis (and I only hoped and prayed I actually had one of those requests in our house because this was happening and there was no time to go shopping!). He asked for a fire truck, a bus, a garbage truck, and lollipops. Thankfully, I had a super cool fire truck that makes siren sounds, a matchbox car bus, and I retreated to my neighbor's house for lollipops during naptime. So, the paci fairy was able to deliver on the most of the requests!

It has been a rough couple of days, but each day is getting easier and easier for the little man to find a new way to fall asleep. Many tears were shed (by both Noah and myself), cries of hysteria were heard even outside the house by my neighbor, and statements of "My pacis are gone forever" were made over and over again. I almost caved and returned the pacis, but am glad we pushed forward.



4 days into the loss of the pacis, the fire truck is still the coolest toy we own and Noah has been proud to show it off to anyone who wants to look at it. We no longer scream in hysterics at naptime and we remain quiet at night, even if we roll over and wake up intermittently. We still ask for it at nap and bedtime, but no more tears shed. I think we have all survived!



Just remind me never to try that again when I don't have Daniel home with me to support us all through the process of losing our pacis forever......