Going Cold Turkey

We decided that it was time. We had been putting it off long enough, but several nights of waking up to Joe yelling, "Wheredit GO!" has finally convinced us that we need to rid him of the pacifier habit. Another prompt for me was his climbing up on top of the dresser to get the pacifier off the five foot high shelf during the daytime in order to sneak some sucks outside of sleep time. I have read in several sources that a baby should be weaned of a pacifier around 6 months... before they develop a serious addiction to the thing. Sorry, Joe. We've failed you.

Last night was his first night without one. He cried off and on for 15-20 minutes, before he settled down and eventually drifted off to sleep. Not bad, I thought. And when I woke up to him yelling, "Ma-mom!" around midnight, I figured it wasn't going to be quite the sleepless night I thought it was. Little did I know that Chris had already been upstairs several times before that. I had just slept through it all. So today, we are all a little tired.

Joe has just gone down for his first nap without the pacifier. After showing him (at his request) that, indeed, the pacifier was gone from the shelf, I put him in bed. The next half hour was spent with him crying to the point of snuffles, and him trying repeatedly to get out of bed. The crying has subsided, but I don't think he's asleep yet. Hopefully, it will be a long nap.
Note to self: Wean third baby from pacifier at 6 months.