No Soother for Nathan

I have been debating for the past while about when to take Nathan's soother away.  Currently, he only gets his soother for when he is put down for a nap and for when he goes to bed.  As soon as he wakes up, it gets put away again (out of sight, out of mind).  I took Matthew and Kayla's away when they turned 18 months...which Nathan is one day away from.  I also knew that I had to take it away either sooner (so that I didn't have to worry about still adjusting while we are camping...which we always go in May/June) or later (after the summer because I don't want him adjusting to it while camping, or me having to deal with the extra crying AND a newborn during the summer).

Unintentionally, today became 'the day'.

I was in a little bit of a rush to get my kids dressed and everything packed and us out of the door this morning, only because I didn't decide what we were going to be doing until this morning, so I couldn't do any planning/pre-packing the night before.  When you are going to spend the day/evening away from the house and know the kids are going to be playing outside for most of the day, you need to pack A LOT.  Thank goodness for a vehicle that can hold a lot of bags :).  I needed a stroller, sandals, crocs, a change of clothes for warm weather, a change of clothes for cooler weather, pajamas for at night, bathing suits, towels, sunscreen, diapers, extra clothes for me, watermelon for all, etc.  All to have to put most of it away again when we got home.  Anyways, like I said in my last post, I bring it on myself because I like to always do something.  And...that was all a total tangent.

So in my hustle this morning I couldn't remember where I had put Nathan's soother after he gave it to me when he woke up.  Jon and I had already lost misplaced Nathan's 'blue' soother...so this was the only readily-available one we had...and it was now missing.  Rather than search high and low for it, I grabbed the newborn-sized one we had sitting in our keys basket (that Jon had pulled out of the newborn clothes box a few months back when he needed one and I had it with me, while shopping),  I thought it would due the trick...a soother is a soother, right?

I was wrong.  When I put Nathan down for his nap and passed him his soother he knew immediately that it just didn't feel right.  He kept putting it in his mouth, and then pulling it out and inspecting it.  He started to get angry at me, and threw it on the ground of his playpen (we were at my parents').  I thought, "This is it, this is the time to do this," and I pocketed the newborn soother and explained to him that he was a big boy just like Matthew and Kayla and didn't need a soother.  He was not impressed.  He kept pointing to his mouth and started to get angry at me.

For the next hour and fifteen minutes he cried/yelled for me.  I made numerous attempts to get him to lay down with his blanket, but for the most part I just let him cry.  After over an hour of crying I took him out of his playpen and laid him on the spare bed in the room with me.  He tried to get up, but I explained that if he got up, I was going to put him back in the playpen.  Within a minute he was fast asleep, and I snuck out.

Putting him to bed tonight was smoother.  He was awake for 45 minutes, but he wasn't crying...just whining about not having a soother.  Poor kid...I'm so mean to him :)  It will be nice to not have to remember to pack a soother anymore!  Now, if only I could find his two lost misplaced soothers tonight/tomorrow before he does...