April 01, 2004 - 8:28 a.m.
Marcus said bye-bye to his pacifier this week.
Zachary made it easy on us, four years ago, when he was only a few months old and started spitting his out. I think he just liked the idea of his own projectile weapon but I took his pacifiers away and he never looked back.
Marcus, on the other hand, was the baby who wouldn't sleep without props. As an infant, he had to be held. As soon as his body touched the crib mattress, he was awake and crying. I was hesitant to ever give him a pacifier but it worked so well we made it a naptime and bedtime habit. (It seemed better than carrying him a sling all day.) I thought about weaning him off of it around his first birthday, but he was being weaned off breastmilk then. One thing a time. In the fall, we were moving. In January and February everyone was repeatedly sick and cranky. This week seemed an opportune time. Mike had a project keeping him late at work, so he wouldn't have to deal with the crying. Not much else was going on. And his pacifiers were worn and needed to be thrown out anyway. Without buying replacements, it forced me to carry on with the plan.
We started on Monday at naptime. Marcus's phrase for going to sleep is "Passa Bankie" -not a side dish at a Mexican restaurant but the two things he needs when he lays down. And I had to tell him that his passa was going away. Bankie would stay, of course, and LaaLaa and Po, to help him sleep. He didn't like the idea and didn't nap. I hoped exhaustion would work in my favor at bedtime. It did. Marcus cried for a while but never asked for his passa. Eventually he settled down and went to sleep.
When he woke at 3am, he couldn't get back to sleep. I went upstairs and held him, rocked him, sang to him. Nothing worked. I went back downstairs to let him cry it out a bit and turn off the baby monitor for Mike so at least he could sleep. But Mike was already awake and volunteered to try to settle Marcus down. He was upstairs all of a minute. The crying stopped. Mike came back to bed.
"What did you do?" I had tried for 20 minutes and failed. What could he have done in 60 seconds?
Mike grinned "Daddy magic."
The next morning he explained that he had laid Marcus down, rubbed his back, and sang the ABC song. Marcus went right to sleep. So I tried it at naptime on Tuesday. It worked! Tuesday and last night, Marcus didn't cry at all in the night. I heard him wake at dawn this morning, talk a little, and go back to sleep. Woot!
Another childhood hurdle overcome. Next: Pictures with the Easter Bunny.
