First, two weeks ago, we decided to go for a pacifier-free household. We had weaned Finn down to pacifier use at naptime and bedtime only for almost a year, but at Finn's two year dentist checkup they strongly advised us to wean off the paci to prevent any teeth movement. We decided to do it sooner rather than later in hopes that Finn would adjust to this change before Peapod arrived. I was really nervous about it. Just when we were getting to a good place in sleep, we had to do this. I researched a lot of theories on how to make the transition an easy one. Everyone recommended a slow weaning, but we were already down to nap and bedtime only, so we had to just go cold turkey from there. I got a book from the library, "pacifiers aren't forever" and we read that for a week before, the big "bye-bye paci" day. We talked to Finn about the day we were going to put the pacifiers in the mail. Then on that day, we went and picked out a monster truck that Finn wanted and a pillow pet to cuddle in bed. We put all the pacifiers in and envelope and put them in the mail to say bye-bye. Finn seemed totally cool with it. I expected a lot of crying at bedtime that night, but he really didn't fuss. The problem was, he didn't sleep either. Poor Sean took the brunt of bedtimes and sat in there with him for up to 2 hours as he tossed and turned and chatted and jumped around. As Sean put it, it was like he was a junky going through withdrawal and couldn't calm down. Luckily, he still stuck with one wake up a night and he was actually easily soothed at that time. It took a good week for Finn to get better at going to sleep quickly at night. Naptimes have been hit or miss ever since. Some days, he will sleep, others he won't. And it seems to have affected length of naps too. For about a week, he would also ask for a paci in the morning and then promptly say, "paci's all gone." I guess in retrospect, it wasn't too bad, but at the time it felt pretty rough.
Then, just as we were adjusting to our paci-free life, Finn got really sick last week. One night out of nowhere, he would not sleep. I mean, he literally did not go to sleep until 5 am. Then, he slept til 11am. It was so weird. Sean and I were trying to figure out what was going on. I was a little frustrating after all of our napping issues. And, lo and behold, Finn spiked a crazy fever of 104.4 F! He was so lethargic and just fell right asleep on the couch (unheard of in this house):
Luckily, we were able to get the fever down to 102F with motrin and we just rode it out for a little over three days. The nurse warned us that a fever typically last for three days and then we would see other symptoms of the cold. On Wednesday, we saw the last of the fever and Finn now has a bit of a cough, but nothing much to speak of. It was a strange illness. He is still more tired and easily cranky, but he has his appetite back and a good amount of energy to play during the day. So, with the sickness, he was up a lot at night again and he still is going through that, but he goes to bed earlier and actually sleeps in a little, which has been nice. He has also been a bit more reliable in nap taking. We will see what happens when he is fully recovered. One thing I know, is you just never know!
2 comments:
Sadie, I bet he had roseola. Brendan had that-super high fever out of the blue, lasted about 3 days and bam, gone. He didn't really get the rash part of it either. Our pediatrician was pretty sure that's what it was though.
I'll have to look for that book-good idea! We've got to get Kieran off of his pacifer!
The cats helped us wean Rach from her paci around her first birthday so we really lucked out. She would leave them laying around the house and the cats would chew on them until all that was left was the "handle". We told her we would not buy any more pacifiers so if the cats ate them they would be all gone. That's exactly what happened, although she did get down to her last one and guarded it with her life for about a week. But even that one got left laying around eventually. Of course, we still have blankie, which I don't mind, since I still have mine too. :)
Post a Comment