Pacifier Madness

Pacifiers - invented to sooth babys. Some families clearly state they couldn't have survived their children's early years without it and see it as "parent's best friend". Others on the other hand view them as an abomination and as an unforgiving sin to use them, giving the evil eye to all those whose child nibbles on a pacifier in public. Especially if the child is no longer an infant but 2 years old. Pacifiers - Blessing or curse? or both?.......*mystery*. Well, I wouldn't call them necessarily a curse. The first few weeks up to 2 month of Finley's life he had colic and giving him a pacifier seemed to work wonders in helping him to overcome his discomfort. When rocking, singing, swaddeling etc. lost their powers the pacifier came like a superhero to rescue and Finley would welcome it with vigorous sucking and eventual sleep. Being out and about in the car and the city the "paci" was a comforting companion when the little one (unable yet to sooth himself) was overwhelmed by to much stimulation and information. Also it is just simple fun to suck on it. To find comfort in sucking is natural to babys and is part of their survival to be able to get milk and grow. It's a natural reflex that babys practise already in the womb on their thumb before birth. So it's no wonder that babys like pcifiers. According to my research it's fine for a child to suck on a paci until the age of two. After that they should stop because of the possibility of deformed teeth and jar which will more likey cause the child to need braces later on in life. One way or the other I have decided to wean Finley (now 4 month) off the pacifier. Now the first family group may say "How can you? You heartless woman!" The other may say "Good choice. Welcome to the club of Anti-Pacifiers!" But I am for neither. After several nights (and days) of fights with the falling out ot the paci which was resulting in endless frustrating crys of Finley (and much frustaration on my side) I have come to the decision that it's time to try if Finley is able to learn to sooth hinself to sleep (without the rescue of a paci) and come out of the paci-addiction. It's been around 4 days now since my experiment started and so far he is doing pretty good. I started with no paci during the day and naptimes (with great protest) but he now sleeps within minutes with no paci and stays asleep soundly up to 2 and half hours. At night he is now falling asleep within 15 minutes (instead of 45 min. to 1 hour), waking up after 7 hours later to nurse (instead of every 2 hours) and then again after 4 hours and greets the morning between 7:30 and 8:00 am. So there was much improvement in a short time, less frustration and more sleep for both of us and he detached from the paci much easier than I thought. I only offer it to him now when we go out but even then he seemed to not be interested in it anymore as he used to be and instead prefers his blanky or stuffed monkey animal that he both likes to chew on until they're swimming with his saliva. So we'll see where we go from here.