My baby Jonah has never taken a pacifier, even though I tried to introduce one when he was younger.
Neither of his big brothers were pacifier babies, either. Zach was a thumb sucker and Eli never wanted anything but breastfeeding and his bottles. Jonah has been just like Eli in that regard.
The other day, Eli found a discarded pacifier in J’s toy box and gave it to him to see what he would do.
He chewed on it, played with it, and then sucked it for a good ten minutes or more.
Then I gave him some bananas, and he’s all, “What paci?”
But then…
We went on vacation. And while on vacation, Jonah got used to sleeping with us. He also got used to nursing all night long. We were in a king-sized bed, so it wasn’t that bad.
Then we got home. And that first night was awful, the three of us crammed into the queen sized bed, Jonah awake every hour. It was insane.
And then we remembered The Paci.
And last night, we popped it into his mouth at bedtime and he started sleeping five hour stretches again.
I know, I know…I’m probably the only mother on the planet who started a nine-month-old on a pacifier, but that, my friends, is how much I value sleep. Whatever it takes to get it, I’m game.
Besides, no one ever went off to college with a pacifier.