The tale of the dummy.

Our dummies (or pacifiers) have always been blue, but this has been the saviour for the past 20 months of our lives. Not just Ryan, but Jamie, Mark and I as well.


Mark never took a dummy. So many of my friends say it too... I'm hearing that phrase belong to first born, healthy children. We have time to rock them to sleep, other "stuff" isn't as important.


Ryan's first day was in NICU (yes only his first day, but the dummy addiction started then). NICU give babies dummies. So from day one he had the blue thing stuck in his mouth. He has had it on a chain (for some reason I call it a dummy catcher), attached to his top 24 hours a day. Over the past 4 months, I guess from just before Ben was born, we started to give it only to him in bed. Take it off him when he got up. But often the little tyke would sneak back into his room, reach into his cot and retrieve the dummy. Two hours later... "where the heck did that thing come from?"


Then Ben was born, Ryan's little life was turned upside down, so I relented and let him have the dummy. The molar teething started, and I relented. Then he got a cold and I relented. Then I just couldn't be bothered, so I relented.


The addiction was entrenched.


Then in the past three weeks, he's been losing it. Taking it off of his own volition. This has been VERY painful, as the latest dummy was essentially clear and difficult to find. He would take the chain off when having a drink, dropping it "wherever". Tossing it when he got angry *which is frequent. The last straw was the biting. He bit holes in the teat, therefore making it a choking hazzard. I've had to buy several new dummies recently due to holes. At $5 a pop, I wasn't going to make a habit of it.


Tonight - 26 July 2011 he bit a hole and then chewed until the teat came off. He looked quite proud of himself. Jamie said "Ok, that's it, dummy is gone" I have to agree, its embarrassing to go out with a toddler who has a dummy. So we prepared. We talked to him, reassured him that although his safety net was gone, that we would still be here and he can go to sleep without it.


He SCREAMED, no make that S---C---R---E---A---M---E---D for a full hour. Threw his blankets away, threw Roger bear away, threw B1 away. Thrashed around the bed. I consoled him, Jamie consoled him. We gave him a drink, then he started screaming again, Jamie went back in, he'd done a big poo. Once cleaned, he lay down calmly with Roger under the blankets and actually drifted off to sleep. He's been asleep for 70 minutes now and I haven't heard a peep out of him. Maybe when he wakes up, he'll be sad. Tomorrow will be another challenge, but its nice to know it can be done - its his first time EVER!