The History of the Passy

As a baby, Noah didn't like his pacifier. However, since he was my first baby, I kept trying to give one to him to help with teething and soothing and whatnot. Plus, I didn't figure that not all babies actually need or want pacifiers. So at about 9 months old, he was hooked and it was my fault. He wanted that passy day and night. And again, as a first-time mom, I thought it was the cutest thing to see him attached to a passy.

Fast forward two years later and he still had the passy! We'd been able to whittle it down to only naps and bedtime but God forbid we ever didn't have a passy ready to go! He was definitely not going to forget.

Before I go any further, here's my one disclaimer: I don't have a problem with pacifiers or parents who let their kids have them until their 4 or whatever. Every kid is different and I'm all for whatever floats your boat and for whatever helps the parents get thru the day.

However, I was beginning to stress out at the fact that he would be turning 3 at the end of this year and I wanted to break the passy habit ASAP. Really it was more for my comfort because I knew the longer he kept it, the harder the transition would be. I'm all for making things easier on myself and everyone else involved as much as possible. I know my kid and I knew leaving the passy behind would be difficult. I was imagining sleepless nights and stressful nap times and I just couldn't quite get up the courage to deal with it.

The way I work is I have to be mentally committed to something before starting. That goes with everything: travel, gifts, making dinner, etc. I rarely jump into anything (except for moving Noah into his toddler bed which we were not prepared to do but had to anyway).

Summer was almost over and the new year at Mom's Day Out approaching and I was determined to do it before then. Noah was the only kid in his class last year to have a passy so I was feeling a little pressured. I know, I know...I shouldn't feel pressured. But I was.

I did research on all the different ways that parents have made the jump to being passy-free. Everything from the passy fairy to going cold turkey. I went with a mix of both.

At the last minute, we planned a weeklong getaway to the beach as a family. I decided that week would be the best time to do it. No passy's would be packed and we would be busy and worn out from swimming all week long. We would also be co-sleeping in our condo. My guess was that Noah would be so tired and ready to sleep and with us there by his side, the transition would go even smoother.

We also decided to make a physical act of saying bye to the passy's. The morning of our flight, we woke the boys up and got them changed. Right before we jumped in the car, Noah opened a special box that had a new truck inside and in exchange, we put all his passy's in the box and sent the box off to be "mailed" to other little babies that needed passy's.

And that was it. No tears just an understanding that he got a new truck for his passy's. We did start to talk with him a couple of weeks in advance about needing to pass on the passy's so hopefully he was forewarned enough. 

The trip went so much smoother than I could even have imagined! He asked for his passy a couple of times, sometimes just being silly, and only once broke down over not having it (mainly because he was super tired). 

Now we're passy free!

I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to take a trip so I could come up with this brilliant plan! Perhaps being with us 24/7 and not being in our normal routine and environment helped the process, but once we got home from vacation it was still smooth sailing and we haven't looked back since.

In case you're wondering, Aaron did not get a passy past a certain age. No way did I want to have another kid to stress over in regards to the passy. There are so many changes during the toddler years that having one less milestone to worry about is a relief.