Bubbas No More
As we had been discussing with Lux for quite a while, we decided that four year olds are too old to be using a "bubba" (pacifier) anymore. Quite a while back we had gone to using them for sleeping only, but now it was time to take the final step. Since Nick is 19 months younger, and he gave up daytime bubbas at the same time, he never seemed quite so dependent on them (though he really did like to go up to his bedroom for "bubba fringe" at naptime). So, as Lux's birthday passed and with a dentist appointment coming up, we decided the time had come to make the big step.We waited until the grandparents left to save them the nights of screaming and picked last Wednesday as B-day. For the three days leading up, we talked about it with both kids each day so they knew what was coming and were prepared for it. We discussed recycling the bubbas so that other kids could have bubbas (we glossed over the practical issue that there isn't a big market in used pacifiers). On Wednesday, Lux and Nick went all around the house collecting bubbas and putting them into a bag, and we steeled ourselves for three days of no sleep. All of these kind of things seem to take about three days in our experience.
Now here we are, after a full week with no bubbas, and everyone is doing great. The first few nights were rough going to sleep, but not nearly as bad as I had imagined. There was a lot of claiming that "I'll never be able to go to sleep", but exhaustion usually took over after a while. The biggest casualty of the process seems to have been naps. Before, Nick almost never missed an afternoon nap, though Lux rarely took a nap. Without a bubba to help him calm down Nick wouldn't nap at all for the first few days, which was a benefit in that he was really tired come bedtime. Once or twice now he has taken a nap without a bubba, but most days he has gone without. We'll see how that develops. On one hand having no nap gives us more flexibility doing things during the day since we don't have to be home for him to nap. On the other hand, there have been a lot of extremely grumpy afternoons with kids that really need a nap, but refuse to take one.
One more milestone passed. Nick and Lux seem happy with themselves for having done it, and we can proudly tell the dentist that neither kid uses a pacifier.
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