Before I had Nathan, I was very anti-pacifier. I didn't like them and I would certainly NEVER use them on my own children. But then we got a few as gifts and we put them away with the rest of the baby things and didn't give them much thought.
Nathan's a really good baby when it comes to crying. He doesn't cry much unless he's hungry or tired. But there were a few times in the beginning when he would cry. And cry. And cry. We couldn't console him no matter what we did and suddenly we remembered the pacifiers so we dug them out and stuck one in his mouth and ...... silence.
I might have hated pacifiers, but Nathan LOVED them! They were like magic... they instantly stopped the crying. More importantly, they calmed him down and we hated seeing him so upset. But we very quickly started getting way too dependent on them and were giving them to him anytime he cried and turning him into a total paci addict so we cut back big time. As he got older, we were able to pacify him ourselves, by giving him a toy or singing a song - I have been known to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider for a solid 10 minutes to keep him smiling and laughing.
Now we try to only give them to him at naptime. (We do however carry one with us at all times in case of an emergency.) So even though I once said I would NEVER use a pacifier, I had to let go of that. Pacifiers helped all of us get through some rough moments when nothing else could. Soon enough we will completely take them away from him. The poor little guy has no idea.
Suck away my friend... for your pacifier days are numbered.
Hahaha, I was the same way, but caved waaaay earlier -- only a few weeks in. We took them away around 6 months bc he was no longer really sucking on them, just kind of playing with them and he really didn't miss them! They definitely have their place in the arsenal of baby-comforts!!!
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