Bye Bye Nuk Nuk

Bye Bye Nuk Nuk, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

His pacifier was by far the thing that Sawyer loved most in the world. Given the choice between having me for the rest of his life or his Nuk, I would have been packing my bags. But he wasn't given the choice. In fact, (think what you want of me - Scott calls me Cruella) I snatched the thing away from him cold turkey.

I'm a firm believer in cold turkey - coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, pacifiers - there's no such thing as cutting back.

So, one day Sawyer went down for bed and there was no Nuk there waiting for him. He tossed the crib looking for it, all his covers and stuffed animals had been thrown overboard when we went back in to easy his suffering sobs – not the 'I don't want to go down for bed' sob, but the 'my best friend was just murdered' sob.

It wasn't that he had the thing 24-7. We enforced a fairly strict, bedtime-only rule with the occasional exception for sickness or travel. When he got up from his nap, we always put the Nuk back down to sleep in the crib and waved bye-bye to it. Occasionally he managed to reach it through the slats and would wander out into the living room sucking away triumphantly.

I had been talking about strategy and timing for weeks, but first he was teething and then he had a cold. And people kept telling me it was too early. He needed to suck. He was only a year old. Even the pediatrician said the Nuk is fine until he gets his permanent teeth. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Okay, honey, have a good day in first grade and be sure to leave your Nuk Nuk in your pencil box during recess, okay? I just couldn't see how it was going to get any easier to take the thing away next month or in five months than right now. And with Five on the way, and hoping she'll take a Nuk, I decided it was best if we eliminated the competition now.

I'll admit, the first few nap times were a disaster. He basically cried for an hour straight. But he went to sleep at night just fine. And, eventually, after about a week, he'd forgotten all about it.

We did bust it out for a wedding last weekend, three weeks after its initial disappearance. A faint glimmer of recognition sparkled in his eye as Scott pulled it out of the bag. He sucked on it for a few minutes - for old time sake - and then threw it on the ground. Vindication. See! I pointed. See! He doesn't even want it.

It's still a little sad. Sawyer doesn't have another lovey. We've always put him down with a few stuffed animals and soft blankets, but he hasn't bonded with any one in particular. Which is maybe just as well since I know several adults (whose identity I will protect) who just can't sleep without their tattered little shred of silky binket.