Henri Sans Pacy

Once Henri recovered from Hand, Foot and Mouth we had no more excuses. We had to cut the Pacy. The dentist said to cut it by 2 years and we extended that to cover our vacation and then illness. About a week ago, over the weekend, we did it. 

Henri only used it to go to sleep. It was about as effective as giving him an Ambien. The moment he took it his eyelids would get heavy and he would start resting his head on my shoulder.  It had been ages since he used it outside of the house (minus on airplanes and the occasional car ride melt down).  What has become apparent is that the little guy had no idea how to wind down without the pacy.

 

It wasn’t as bad as I feared – there were no tantrums. There was definitely some whining . At the times when I would normally give it to him (after the bath) he would tell me “pacy, bye bye.”  After a week he doesn’t seem to think of his old friend too often… But putting him down has become a nightmare.

 This child of mine is crazy. Without his pacifier he is bouncing off the walls. He talks nonstop. I have to tell him repeatedly to lay down. Sometimes I sit there listening to him babble on and I can tell he is thinking about his day (on a school day he starts talking about his classmates, if we had hung out with our neighbors he talks about them). Sometimes he just practices saying things. His nightlight projects stars and the moon on the ceiling and every night he points out the moon. I have listened to him repeatedly say “I see moon. I see moooooon. I SEE MOON!” Sometimes he lifts his shirt up a little and tickles his own stomach. He has head butted me a few times… One night it took him 1.5 hours to fall asleep. It’s gradually getting better.  Though he is waking up with the sun which is unacceptable!

When I was young I used to torture my sister – and probably anyone who ended up having to bunk with me – by talking to them until they fell asleep. With my sister I would continuously give her a little kick to make sure she was still awake so she wouldn’t miss the end of my story. So perhaps Henri gets his… bedtime chattiness… from me. Maybe this is revenge?