The beginning of the end, or just the end?

We have some more teeth entering our household, and Little Dude’s gums have been pretty red and swollen, with some minor bleeding on occasion. The lower cuspids are slowly, and obviously in an uncomfortable fashion, arriving in Little Dude’s mouth.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the upper ones coming in as well, so there is a lot of drool and gnawing on everything occurring in our household. We can’t complain, though, as although Little Dude has been a bit more moody, he has handled teething like a champ, for the most part.

These latest teeth have had another side-effect, though.

The nukster (pacifier) is no longer a good friend to Little Dude. (By the way, we use the term nuk/nukster, as I can’t stand the terms “paci” or “binky.” Binky sounds like a scary clown, if you ask me, and paci is just yuck. I’ve heard other terms, too, but most of them drive me nuts, because I’m weird about words, that way. Little Dude doesn’t use the nuk-brand of pacifiers, but the name stuck. And yes, Little Dude has the book, “Binky,” and loves having it read to him.)

Little Dude has had the nuk for most of his life. It was my lifesaver when I nursed, after he began to accept it, as it gave me a much-needed break from hour-long feeding sessions, when he would comfort nurse. There were days I felt like I couldn’t be more than a foot away from him at all times, and the nuk gave me a few minutes here and there.

The nuk helped out the Hubby, my mom and my neighbor, when I went back to work, as by then, he had transitioned to using the nuk as a comfort device when I was unavailable.

Between his “silky” (blanket with satin-type backing) and the nuk, Little Dude is able to feel like he can handle anything.

It might be coming to a natural end, though. Not for the silky, but for the nuk.

Little Dude has refused the nuk at bedtime the last two nights, and rejected it again for nap-time, today. He did take it for nap-time yesterday, but that was the only time he really wanted it. Otherwise, it has been spit out or tossed away.

The Hubby and I just talked about it, and we aren’t going to offer it the rest of the weekend. If he reaches for one (we try to keep them all clean and in one place, but we’ve been surprised at where they show up) or indicates he would want one (he knows where they are kept), we aren’t going to turn him down. But it has to be his call.

If he makes it through the weekend without one, I’m guessing we’ve lost our little nukster face.

I’m happy for him, but also sad… I always think of “Maggie Simpson” and giggle when I see Little Dude so intent on that nuk. Also, it has been in our bag of tricks for calming Little Dude for so long, I feel like we are entering a foreign land without it.

Along with that transition, we are transitioning away from bottles as well. We’ve only used them for formula, ever, except for when we first introduced him to some very watered-down juice, so we never worried about if that would be a difficult transition.

He is successfully using a sippy cup or straw cup for formula during the day, so we will probably begin doing the same in the morning. The night bottle will be the last one to go, and we may wait until we get the all-clear from our physician on reducing formula, or stopping it altogether.

He will be retested on the severity of his dairy protein allergy shortly after his 18-month appointment, or so we have discussed.

I see the last remnants of the baby I had in this household slipping away, right now… My heart is torn on rejoicing in his growth and achievements, and looking ahead to all the other things he will accomplish, or breaking as I see this part of life slipping away…

(And, yes – Little Dude actually had both of these “nuks” at one point, as Mam has been the preferred brand around here since he was about six months old.)