The Prince and the Pacifiers

While Tyler may not be quite as sensitive as the Princess and the Pea, he definitely has a little quirk when it comes to sleeping. He has always used a pacifier to sleep. We always used to leave an extra one on his bookshelf in case we couldn't find it in the middle of the night. Then when he figured out how to look for it and find it himself, we started leaving a couple extras in his crib in case he lost one.

Just recently I started to notice that he HAD TO HAVE more than one or he wouldn't go to sleep. But two isn't good enough either. Neither is four. He has to have exactly three pacifiers to fall asleep. One for his mouth, and one for each hand. Two is not enough, it simply won't do. Four is too many. He just doesn't have enough hands. It's pretty funny to watch, actually. If he has four, he sits there switching them between his mouth and hands. If he manages to get two in one hand, he will start to lay down, but usually drops one and has to sit up and do it all over again. He ends up getting pretty frustrated. If he only has two, he looks around for another and gets frustrated when he can't find it. If he has three, he switches them around between his hands and mouth until he decides they are all in the right place and then he can lay down and go to sleep. Sometimes he wakes up and we can hear the little clicking of his pacifiers while he makes sure they are all accounted for and then he lays back down.

The only problem with this little quirk is that when he's avoiding falling asleep, he likes to throw them overboard. We've lost quite a few that way. I'm actually pretty convinced that he has a secret stash somewhere. Someday I'm going to open a drawer or look under a piece of furniture and find a huge pile of them. I don't know what he does with them! And every once in awhile when I think they're all put away, he will find one in some unknown location that I have yet to find. He's pretty tricky.

Eventually, when he's too old for a pacifier, and we decide he's done with it, it is going to be one rough transition at our house!