Life Without "Pappi"

Before I had my son, I always thought I would never have my future children use pacifiers, just like I thought I would never co-sleep with them. Then, I became a mommy for real, and most of my thoughts on how to parent disappeared. Co-sleeping became the norm, and we suddenly found a need for pacifiers because V hated riding in the car in his rear facing infant car seat. Plus, my raw and bloodied nipples from his incorrect latching while breast feeding needed a break once in a while. So, "paci" became his comfort object, and we went through several over the past two years. When he started talking and was able to name things, paci became "pappi". Don't ask me where the second "p" sound came from, but even though my husband and I called it a "paci", it's always been a "pappi" to V. Anyway, some time on Wednesday afternoon, pappi got misplaced. I looked everywhere for it, but it seemed as though it had gone to the realm of lost socks and missing puzzle pieces. Luckily, we had "paci-on-a-leash" still around as a backup. When V was younger, we put his pacifier on a wooden clip/pacifier chain made by HABA, a great German company that sells games, toys, and other things for kids. Not only did it look great, but it was durable and stayed clipped to his clothes. As he got older, we upgraded to bigger pacifiers, and since he could put them in his mouth and take them out all by himself, we didn't bother to clip them, anymore. This helped wean him a bit and gave him a chance to talk without having something constantly in his mouth. It also meant we were losing pacifiers much more frequently, which is what happened on Wednesday evening. We reverted to "paci-on-a-leash", and even though he hadn't used it in a long time, he seemed to be just fine with it. He used that pappi all day yesterday. His nap ended up being later in the day because we had spent some time at the library playing. He woke up from his nap just in time for us to grab him and take him to his second Musik Garten class at the YMCA. I ended up dropping my husband and V off at the entrance to the Y, so they could rush into class and get settled. Apparently, neither of us realized that he had had the "paci-on-a-leash" in his mouth, that it had NOT been clipped to his shirt, and that it had fallen outside of the car as B and V went into the Y. In fact, we didn't realize this until we were leaving the Y after class, and B couldn't find pappi anywhere in the car. We had plans to go to our friends' house after V's class, and as the evening wore on and V got more tired, we heard numerous pleas for pappi. It broke my heart because I knew we had lost our only backup. It was too late to buy a new one, and B thought it would be a good opportunity to see how V did without a pacifier overnight. So, we ended up going to bed with V still wide awake and wanting his pappi. It didn't take him long to fall asleep after the lights went out, and I don't remember him waking up in the middle of the night, which he was apt to do whenever his pacifier fell out of his mouth. When B's alarm went off this morning, V and I woke up, too, and though we usually try to go back to sleep, he had a rough time without having his pacifier to soothe him. I decided to go ahead and get us up early, even though I would have preferred another hour or two of sleep. It's now lunch time, and V has asked for pappi a few times today, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. I've tried to keep him busy and interested in other things, and by some strange coincidence, I even had a book appropriate for the occasion, called Pacifiers Are Not Forever, which I had picked up from the library yesterday. I've thought about transitioning him from the pacifier for a while now, and though this really wasn't the way I wanted to do it, it seems like it might be working. We'll see how nap time goes today. We're going to my parents' house this weekend, too, so I guess we'll find out how he'll do without pappi there, too. I guess if worse comes to worse, I can always go out and buy a new one. However, this might be the perfect time to help him find other ways to comfort himself and to fall asleep, like a stuffed animal or a blanket. Also, the potty training that I'd been hoping to try for a while is going on the back burner until we get through this. Hopefully, it'll be a little more smoother than the co-sleeping transition that we're still working on!
Best to you all,
Amanda