Straight From the Bottle

I have to say, she is just gorgeous. Archer is too. Gorgeous!

I just started blogging (inspired by awesome bloggers like you) & it was actually a traumatizing trip to the grocery store with Mr Tiny that put me over the edge and forced me to seek inner peace not through yoga but through the power of blogging it all out. So I'm laughing to see your Trader Joes blip because you are so spot on!

My seven month old daughter wouldn't take a pacifier until she was around four months.  I was desperate one day, so I tired it again, and bam!  She realized what she'd been missing.  Now, I pity the person who tires to take it away.   Fable and Archer are cuties!!!

I'm not sure what I would do if my almost-one-yr-old lost her paci.  I think I'm the one attached.  I start to panic when she throws it out of her crib and I can't find it.  I know some people think they're not good to have.  I actually had someone tell me that pacifiers were just "empty promises."  And then I punched him in his man boobs.  With both fists.

With our son we called pacifiers "aggressifiers" (Probably not a real word) as giving them to him just made him made... he became a thumb sucker so it worked out, but know lots of people are against that too. We're OK with it for now as it works and is now mostly a sleeping or sick comfort. He just turned two

I'm with you on that... I successfully weaned my 2 year-old from the paci during the day months ago, but he still has it for sleeping and I'm planning to wait until he's ready...

And however long and hard it is to get it of it for good, I'm sorry but I will still have been 100% worthwhile given how much he liked it and how it helped us ease tons of situations.

OMG, Jessi, that is horrible!  Good for you for the punching of the man boobs.  My 2.5 year old still uses her paci for naps and nighttime, and she knows that paci goes bye-bye when she's awake, and we're going to keep it that way for awhile, especially after baby #2 is born in a month.  I completely agree with you, GGC- it doesn't hurt anyone.  Not even my kid's teeth, which are just going to fall out anyway.  It's something we lie to our pediatrician about.  She would have had us ditch it a year ago.  But why???  It helps my girl fall asleep so brilliantly- why would I take that away??

Like you, I SO wanted my baby to take a pasi. Before he was born, I bought a handful and was good to go. And then? He didn't care of them. At all. (Didn't really like sucking on a bottle, either.)

I've heard so many times that the second child is completely different than the first, though, so hopefully #2 will take a pasi.

I think your reasoning is sound. The only reason I hesitate to be totally on board with Archer still loving on his nu-nu has to do with what shape it is. Does he use the orthodontist-approved shape? If not, regular sucking at his age can give him not only trouble with teeth coming in and the wrong angles, but also with his upper palette. The rounded shape binkies are said to press against the palette in such a way that it makes the shape change and that could give him orthodontic troubles in his teenage years when his adult teeth come in. Just something to check out.

Gus was almost 4 when we decided to leave the pacifier behind. It was so sad but not as hard as I thought. We sort of "lost" it one day. We'd talk about it, he cry and I'd hold him tightly, then one day about a week later the questions stopped and bedtime became normal again. I didn't mind him having it either but for 4 was beyond old for a pacifier plus at that age it really can cause havoc on those sweet little teeth. But like with anything I kind of followed his lead and let things happen instead of planning to far. Kind of like potty training.. pee was fine for for about a year and a half but pooping was a whole other issue. then one day about 3 months before the 4th bday. poof and poop and that was it. Truly, its all going by so fast!

Oy! I want James to be a binky boy so bad! My theory is that when it's time to stop the habit, it's a lot easier to take away a pacifier than his hand. Right now, he won't take a binky from me. He vastly prefers his hands.

My first born was a binki girl. And I took them away at 2 and bed time was NEVER the same. It went from peaceful to HELL. So I totally agree with you and wish I would of let her stop on her own. My son on the other had is just like Fable and would spit them out and give me the "WTF" look. He is also still nursing and is almost 2. He prefers boobs "muks" too. We baby sat a 6 month old last weekend and she had a binki and he found on in his toy box and he then wanted to used it. lol

I think it has something to do with formula fed babies vs. breast, because my two are the same! my 2 1/2 year old LOVED having a paci and my 6 month old HATES them, go anywhere near him with one and he shuts his mouth and wont let you near him, go at him with a boob and it's mouth wide open.

I find it funny that you are trying so hard to get Fable attached to a pacifier while you are having so much trouble weaning Archer. If she doesn't want a paci see it as a blessing - she will find a way to comfort herself in time, and then she can put herself back to sleep at night (unless she needs to be fed, of course). The same thing happend with my daughter, and she sucks on her fingers to go to sleep, but that's it. She's 19 months and uses the finger less and less. And yes, she was breastfed, so there probably is a connection. Good luck.

Neither of my kids ever accepted a paci. But they took to bottles with a vengeance! My firstborn never breastfed because he was convinced boobs were evil after a NICU idiot nurse swabbed me with alcohol before trying to get him to latch on. :( Anyway. He`s *ahem* 3 now and his bottle is his comfort object. And I`m a terrible mom and let him have it. But not in public. So a paci is really, really not a big deal, at least it isn`t rotting his teeth away!

My son wouldn't take a paci until about 4 months, when he started daycare...and he promptly disposed of it right after his first birthday.  His dad and I were in shock b/c I think we relied on it more than he did, but alas, he would just get pissed off if we gave it to him, so he weaned himself.  Up until 4 months, he only used me to pacify himself.  Good times.

It's always something, isn't it. People will chastise if he's still nursing, still in diapers, still taking a bottle, still co-sleeping, still using a paci. Why the hell does everyone care so much? Obviuously, we all go through the trauma-drama of making choices for our own families, falling into what works best for each individual child and living with that decision. I never get why everyone is so opionated about everyone else. Here's the thing, in exchange for giving over our bodies, minds and sanity to another little human (aka becoming moms and dads) we get to decide how we parent. Period. I just say, own it sister!

My son will be 3 in a couple of months and still has to have his 'binky' for sleepy time, and sometimes when he's just playing. Why not? Funny thing is, both of my girls gave up on their pacifiers between 9 and 10 months(youngest one only started taking it after 4 months of our persistent offering it to her), even though I wish they took them MUCH longer. It's not like their crying and tantrums stop at 10 months, right? So now I have to figure out a new way to help my girl calm down faster after her brother tries to ride on her back.

I think there's something to the breastfeeding / no paci connection.  My son wouldn't take one until months after he was weaned.  Now (at 17 months) he is OBSESSED with the "buh-buh".  I too wished for the paci when he wanted nothing to do with it and now I have nightmares about being somewhere ANYWHERE without the buh buh.  Be careful what you wish for!

My kid is totally like Fable. She just won't take a pacifier and she needs my boob to sleep. During the day she can fall asleep okay without it (but much better with it) and at night? Just not happening. It's making transitioning to the crib a lot more difficult than I think it should be.

My boy wouldn't take a paci when he was a baby.  I tried and tried, but no luck.  He did like Fable and just spit them out after 30ish seconds.  But I figured it out...he was a chunker and his cheeks were too big to get a good suction on the thing so it was either suck the edges into his face leaving permanent half moons on either side of his mouth, or give up.  She's got some cheeks on her, so maybe it's something similar.  

(side note: Avent makes pacis that have flat safety edge thingies...so they don't dig quite as much)

Every baby is so different.  My first was super-content with just the boob.  My second was a monster-sucking machine.  At first I tried to make him happy by just feeding him all the time.  But it turned out that all the time was too much and led to excessive puke.  Got him a binky (natursutten... which are rubber & cool!) and everyone was happy.  Whew.

we love your website! we like the other 12198749283723093 people who have blogs should be so lucky.

Cute Babies!!

I had two babies that didn't like the paci but then my third did, and he just gave his up a month ago and he just turned 2. :) Kids do things when they are ready. So good for you!

I tried to get both my girls on pacis, but no dice. They are both hard-core thumb suckers, which is adorable and super convenient, but as the oldest one is 5 1/2 I really wish she'd quit it before she loses her baby teeth.  Eventually you can throw out the paci, but the thumbs are hard to detach.

I bought 17 different kinds of pacifiers for my son.  Not exaggerating - 17 completely different brands, trying to find one he liked.  I even paid like $40 to have one shipped from Australia that supposedly had a shape breastfed babies loved.  No deal.  He nursed to sleep for the next 17 months.

C'est la vie.

Hey Becca! Don't worry about Archer and the paci. Also it won't ruin his teeth "for life" either. like %98 of kids get braces anyways. It's nothing ortho can fix in the long run! I work at a pediatric dental office and here are some tips we give and heard to get them to stop...

-tie the paci to the door knob of his room and tell him if he wants it he has to sit near the door and use it(heard they do it for a few days then get bored with it.)

-try cutting the nipples shorter and shorter every few days.

If these don't work oh well he'll give it up eventually! Good luck!

(my son sucks his thumb now and it's awesome bc it's always there and it does wonders!)

I wasn't keen on the pacifier in the beginning but I had some desperate nights when all I wanted was for my daughter to sleep, dangit, and so we tried the pacifier. No way in hell. I'd put it in her mouth and she would spit it out almost immediately with a "what the hell is this" kind of attitude. (It's a nipple, I would think to myself.... suck it!) Anyhow, the pacifier never happened and eventually she learned to fall asleep un-boob assisted and weaned herself at age two. Happy ending.

I know this story is an anomaly but my sister-in-law was stuck on the paci for years and even had a hidden stash in her room at 13, 14 years of age, which she would secretly suck on at night. Cringe.

I like reading your blogs.....I haven't read all of them yet,but i definitely will.I love the clothes your babies wear. i get really overwhelmed when i shop for my two kids. i want them to be unique. there's not a lot of little shops around where i live...so i was wondering if you could tell me of a few ideas or if you might know where i can shop online.

i was really attached to my pacifier as well.  my mom was really keen on getting me to give it up (not sure what her reasons were), so the christmas i was 2, maybe 3, she told me that if i put my pacifier under the tree, santa would take it to some little kid who didn't have one and needed it.  i actually remember that too, and it's a really positive memory, despite the fact that my mom actually lied to me!  as far as i know, i didn't ask for it again.