Sorry to hear about the ear infection, high fevers are scary!

But I'm dying with that first picture and the potatoes.  Almost snorted my water through my nose... :-)

Ear infections and high fevers are scary - Eva had chronic ear infections for about 8 months when she was 16-24 months old, but she hasn't had one since.  It was a rough few months.

As for pacifiers - sickness definitely made Evie ask for hers, but we usually got back to the routine of crib only pretty quickly.  Then again, there was only one of her, so she couldn't gang up on me.  :-)  By the way, she used a pacifier (in bed only) until her third birthday.  Our doctor had told us they were OK until age 3 when they could start doing teeth damage.  So, from about age two and a half, we told her that when she turned three we would say bye-bye to the pacifier.  She helped us throw them away and never asked for one again!

At least a pacifier is something you can hide or take away.  My son is addicted to his thumb and (sadly) his pee-pee.  One hand in the mouth, the other down his pants.  At first I was going to ignore the penis thing, not to make a big deal of it. But he was doing it all the time and it was leading to some serious bedwetting incidents.  Now he is always confined to a onesie.  Not just a onesie, either, because he'll go in through the leg hole.  Onesie and some type of pants.  And we stop him when he does it. I hope I'm not scarring him for life.

Oh no!  We haven's started the pacifier weaning yet and Im not looking forward to it, but we did try the bottle weaning.  I am trying the sippy cups, but after new teeth and a giant cold...we regressed as well. Just know you aren't alone!

My daughter was a serious pacifier addict, and we also got her down to using it just in the crib, and then we also had a regression around when she was about 16 months old, so I totally hear you on this series of events (except for the twin part).  We had gotten really lax about just taking it away from her first thing in the morning, and hiding it so she didn't see it if she went into her room.  If she saw it, she asked for it, and if she didn't see it, she generally forgot about it.  So we just had to get tough with ourselves on that, even stopping bringing it with us in the car or when we're out (because we did that too).  Lately (at 19-20 months) she's been giving it up all by herself in the mornings, and she's actually fallen asleep in the car without it, so there's hope for us yet.  We're also shooting to wean at about age 2, though my pediatrician was all, "Yeah, I like to have them off the pacifier at 18 months."  At her 18 month checkup.  Like, this is information that could have been useful, I don't know, say 3 or 6 months ago!

Anyway, my advice would be to be really regimented with yourself about taking it away and hiding it and redirecting them if they ask for it during the day.  Not easy, I know, and I'm sure double not easy with twins!  Good luck!  And I'm sorry to hear about Clio's ear.

I second the at-least-it-isn't-their-thumb comment.  Quinn is 4 and still sucks his thumb when he is tired.  I always know when that is because the thumb goes in and the index finger rubs (and crushes) the tip of his nose.  If it makes you feel any better, I sucked my thumb until I was 5 and my brother didn't get rid of his pacifier until almost that age and our teeth were fine.  Best of luck to you and the girls.

I guess I'm evil because right at a year we switched to sippy's instead of bottle. That was pretty easy. Then about 2 weeks ago (he's almost 14 months) we realized he was getting more and more attached to the Bobo (paci) so we talked about it and decided it would be easier now than in 6 months or a year so we hid all of them for 2 days to see what would happen. He was a little upset but not bad enough for us to break them out again. After a week we threw them all away. YAY!!

Sorry about the fever/ ear infection thing. Fevers are scary. My son had Roseola a month or so ago and I freaked when the thermometer his 104+. So glad it didn't include an infection too that would have been terrible. Hope she's feeling much better now!

My b/g twins used pacifiers for sleeping only after about 18 months, and they loved them.  Sometimes I would catch my son taking "hits" off of his pacifier when it wasn't time to sleep - he'd sneak into his room and pull it out of his crib and suck on it for a minute and then put it back.  If I caught him he'd put it back quickly and walk out of the room.  I couldn't help but laugh.  

Anyway, when they turned three and we moved them to big beds in their own rooms, I told them that the store wouldn't sell me pacifiers any more because pacifiers were only for babies and my kids were too old.  I let them keep the pacifiers they already had (one each) until, about a month later, my son's got a hole in it.  So, before they came in to get into bed I pulled his apart so that the top ripped off and then ran into my daugher's room and snipped hers with sissors.  We let them find them broken in their beds so that they wouldn't blame us and they both cried heartbreakingly hard when they saw that their pacifiers were broken, especially when we reminded them that we weren't allowed to buy more, but, surprisingly, they both went to sleep pretty easily that night and slept right through.  After that, my son never mentioned it again.  My daughter said that she missed it for about 2 more nights, but then went on to explain to *us* that pacifiers were for babies.  

I'm glad we used pacifiers because they were a great self-soothing tool.  We thought we'd get rid of them by the time they were two, but I really think going until they were three was fine (the dr and dentist thoguht so too).  They have great sleep habits and I think the pacifiers helped to develop them.

Whatever works!

we also do the pacifiers only in cribs/car thing (g/b twins 17 months). when i get them up in the morning they put the pacifiers in the drawer themselves and then they are gone until nap time. it actually works! they are into having jobs right now. plus i feel like it is better than me being mean mommy taking them away. they're in control (sort of). in the car they definitely get them b/c i've still got them rear-facing because i am crazy and read too much. this is one break up i am not looking forward to b/c the pacifiers really do help them get to/stay asleep.

I don't know.  If you can get your kids excited about going to bed with those things....that sounds really nice.  

Amy

Mom to 3

www.sofiabean.com