Meet Bill

Long story short, Colin has been having a tough time going to sleep without a pacifier. He LOVES the thing. He will actually lay down when drowsy with one in his mouth and fall asleep, but as soon as that thing falls out of his mouth...forget it. I will usually have to pop it back in a bunch of times before he FINALLY falls into a deep sleep, which can take a long time.

I sent an e-mail out to some of my family and friends asking for their opinions on what I should do about this. One response was from my Aunt Kim. She said, "we all know the benifits of a good KIKI." This made me laugh.

You see, KIKI (pronounced key-key) was my cousin Ellyn's most favorite thing in the world. It was a small soft Peter Rabbit stuffed animal that she would use to soothe her. She would stroke his little ears against her face and suck on her fingers...and this seemed to do the trick for her.

Then this got me thinking. My brother Chris had something too...his "Mickey". This was the Mickey Mouse blanket that came with his crib bedding set. He loved this thing. Sometimes he would want a "cold Mickey" to go to bed with, which would require one of us to pop it in the freezer for a few minutes to get it to the desired temperature. Hey, whatever worked!

And then there was my cousin Emily's "Jennica". I think Emily named her this because it was a combo of the names Jennifer and Jessica. Creative, huh? Jennica was a soft pink baby doll that Emily loved to carry around. No offense to Emily, but this thing got pretty dirty and discusting...but she loved her just the same.

SO anyways, I remembered that before he was born I bought Colin something called a Taggies Dog Sleepy Fleece. And taking my Aunt Kim's advice, I have been randomly putting it next to Colin to slowly introduce it to him. I know he is way too little to actually understand that this thing might be able to soothe him one day, but hopefully someday he will reach for it in a time of need instead of crying out for his pacifier. This evening while napping on the couch (and yes, I was sitting right next to him to make sure he wouldn't roll off the couch or suffocate) he grabbed for it. I don't know if this was just pure coincidence since it was lying right next to him, but he has been sleeping soundly ever since.


Oh, and your probably wondering why this post is titled "Meet Bill". That's because when I asked Kevin what his name should be, Kevin said "Buffalo". Gee, big surprise. Thinking that this might be too confusing since it is a dog, I compromised and said "Bill". So his name is Bill. For now.

DISCLAIMER: I apologize in advance to Ellyn, Chris, and Emily for blogging about this. All three of them are now happy, smart and well-adjusted young people. AND to the best of my knowledge, none of them require these things anymore to go to sleep. I especially hope that Chris and Ellyn don't, since they are now 19 and 18, respectively. Haha. Love you all!