Four (yes, 4) pacifiers later… SUCCESS!

For those of you who are not sleep challenged, this may not seem like much of a victory – in fact, I thought EVERY baby loved a pacifier. But I assure you, that’s not true, and so winning the pacifier battle is a pretty fabulous achievement! Especially since 2 weeks ago, little miss Zoe decided to have a growth spurt and began feeding literally every hour, on the hour, all afternoon for 3 days straight. Her mother, who is new to this breastfeeding thing, got hoodwinked and didn’t realize that at the end of each feeding, little Zoe was “soothing” for a while, not feeding, which created some really ouchie mommy-bottles.

And speaking of bottles, Daddy has been feeding Zoe one bottle per day for the past 2 weeks, which is going well during the feeding. BUT after the bottle is empty (when she should be drifting into blissful sleep), sweet Zoe realizes that she hasn’t had her mommy-bottle time and decides she’s going to protest. The first day that happened, she got her way, but 2 ouchie mommy-bottle days later, that was out of the question.

We’ve been holding off on introducing a pacifier, since many think that pacifiers create nipple confusion and may affect breastfeeding, but desperate times… Plus, we’re technically out of the danger zone (or almost), since 4-6 weeks is recommended by some as a “safe time” to bring in the reinforcements (pacifiers).

First pacifier we purchased was a “Soothie“, and the first time we tried it, screaming baby. No luck. Second pacifier was a “Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature“. Screaming baby, not a chance. So I did some research and started buying more pacifiers, as any good (read: neurotic) parent would do. Third pacifier was a Gerber Nuk Newborn Orthodonic. You can imagine the results. Fourth pacifier was a “Gumdrop“, which is supposed to be just like the Soothie with some bonus features and is very well rated. But not by Zoe.

Instead of buying MORE pacifiers (though I was tempted), we decided to go back to the beginning and have a little more patience with the Soothie, which is hospital recommended. And on the magical afternoon that normal people who do not live in the vortex call “Monday”, mommy put Zoe in her sleeper and slowly, patiently coaxed the Soothie into Zoe’s open (screaming) mouth. What you see above is the result – 3 sucks and OUT like a light! It was incredible. Now, you may ask why I chose to video this event on my iPhone in a dark room when we’d had so much trouble? Well, though I may have lost my mind, I have not lost my determination – and I was determined that “Monday” would be the day that Zoe learned to love the pacifier. And of course, I was determined to email the video to her father at work immediately (which I did).

And yes, I have control issues. When everything seems out of your control, the little things really matter.

Sure, it’s only Thursday. Anything could happen from here, but so far the Soothie is doing its job when needed, so I choose to remain positive about it ;) Please send your good vibes our way – and if you have an idea for a name (every good pacifier needs a name), send that, too!