by Andrea Updyke posted in Mom Stories

I have a confession to make. My 3 year old uses a pacifier when he sleeps. Also" I have no intention of taking it away.
We've all seen the pictures of older celebrity babies pacifiers/bottle/high heels and made our judgments. We all think we will do things a certain way before we have kids. And we all find our own system that works that is somewhere between total control and total anarchy. Today" I am standing up for sleep. And for our family, that means the paci stays.

My son SLEEPS. He sleeps well. He sleeps with a paci. Last year we decided to drop the paci. We ceremoniously said goodbye and he even (quite bravely) threw it in the garbage all by himself. That night he went right to sleep without a second thought. I was victorious. I was proud. I even blogged about it. I was arrogant.
Not 2 days later, he stopped napping. Like as in, completely. He went from 3 hour naps to non-stop chatter. I turned to Google to find out if he was ready to drop the nap. Post after post appeared saying that children dropped naps about the same time they dropped pacifiers. I knew the paci would be back.
Thankfully, I am really good at eating my words.
I marched myself right out to the store and purchased not one, but two new pacifiers. We named them "bedtime pacis" and told Oscar that they had to live in his bed. He gladly accepted those terms and is back to nice long afternoon naps!
Of course I worried that I would ruin his te...