Winniebee posted last week in anticipation of paci-weaning her son, and most of the responses were that it didn't end up being a huge deal. Well, I'm weaning my 27-month-old and it's been hell. He had been sleeping better than ever in his life from about early December until now (2-3 hour nap during the day, 11 hours of sleep overnight). All that is out the window. We tried to pull the paci cold turkey and it was a disaster, so we backed off, ordered the "Lily Method" pacifiers, and have been slowly doing those. It worked fine until we reached the last few, and then he went ballistic. He's absolutely beside himself that he can't suck on them, so we threw them out and now he's paci-less. Just hoping to hear from others who had less-than awesome experiences...did sleep ever return to normal? 
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Ugh. I clearly have no advice, but just wanted to send hugs
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Did you offer up a transitional lovey? Maybe let him pick a new stuffy or something.
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It wasn't super smooth for us either. Daycare had no issue for naps so we went for it a few weeks ago on a weekend. We talked it up and cut the pacis from his Wubbanubs. Nights were ok but he took an hour to get to sleep. Napping was HORRIBLE. He went from easy 3 hr naps to screaming for 2 hrs. We put his Twilight turtle nightlight in the crib (projects stars onto ceiling) and that REALLY helped. Maybe an hour of fussing around. By Monday he was back at daycare and by the weekend he was back to normal. It was so hard not to give in but we just kept giving his other loveys and the turtle nightlight and stayed strong. I think cold turkey and no going back is the best, but it was a lot harder than I thought because his sleep was similar to your LO.
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We haven't found anything that works either. Still dealing with paci and sleep issues at 3 years. Thinking of you and following this thread.
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@theotherstark: Thank you
@Banana330: We just gave him a new lovey (he's obsessed with Margaret Tiger so we got him a little tiger doll), but I don't think he's old enough to understand that it's a replacement. He is pretty verbal but at 2 AM he's just pissed he doesn't have the paci. Thanks for the idea, though-maybe I need to get another special toy?@muffinsmuffins: Thank you so much for being honest about how much it sucked and how long it took. SO GLAD your little one is back to normal. It gives me hope!@littlejoy: Thanks for the support, and sorry it's an issue for you, too. We are trying to stay strong and follow through but it's SO HARD. I am thankful for the two years of awesome sleep, but this blows
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Aww I'm so sorry! We only successfully weaned bc she happened to have gotten sick and her throat her and using the paci just made it worse so we seized the opportunity... Hugs
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We didn't wean until almost 3 1/2. The only thing that really got her excited was giving her pacis to her baby brother that was coming soon and receiving a "bye bye binky" present. Our ped and dentist both said to drop it around 3 years old. 27 months is still young. Good luck!
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DS was a HUGE pacifier addict. There were times when he was melting down and it was the only thing that would get him to calm down. They were also essential to sleep for a really long time. But we slowly phased them out and by 2.5 he was done and it was pretty painless.
We started with restricting them to being used only for sleep or the car. He slowly stopped using them for nap at daycare and after a while we stopped giving them for nap or the car, and they were only for at night.
They started breaking at that point and every time one broke, we had him throw it away. Then the last one broke and he volunteered to throw it in garbage. After that he asked for it a couple times but we would remind him that he threw it away and he'd be like, "oh yeah" and move on.
We did have one false start though, one night we didn't let him have it and bedtime was a little longer than usual. The next night bedtime was a disaster and then we had a broken smoke detector elongate the process even further and we were all so frazzled that we gave up and gave it back to him. Maybe a month or two later he was totally done.
So I'd say just give them back and wait a little longer until he's ready. IMO it's not worth losing sleep over.
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We had a similar experience to @ShootingStar. I carried around so much guilt having let her keep her paci so long but when she finally threw her last one away all on her own, it was no big deal. My thoughts were always along the line of if a doctor or dentist wasn't telling me to get rid of it, she could keep them until they break!
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@snowjewelz: The first night we took the paci away he went right to sleep and we looked at each other and were like "OMG! This is great!" Then he woke up with a high fever and had a double ear infection and we just couldn't stay the course while he was sick. So impressed that you were able to pull it then!
@Worrywart: Funny you mention that-I've started telling him we "gave" his pacis to our two friends who each had a daughter. Said we sent them to Baby H and Baby A. Today before nap he was repeating that over and over again, "I don't need the paci, I send paci to the babies..." I know 27 months is younger than they said I "needed" to, but I figured it was worth a try...
@ShootingStar: We're giving this weekend as our final go at it. I *think* he might be turning a corner (let's pretend I didn't say that for fear of jinxing it). He's definitely taking less time to fall asleep and able to better settle himself during overnight wakings.
@Mrs. Sunshine: I wonder if 2.5 would have made that much more of a difference. I think it might. If he keeps going on the upward trend I'm hoping we can be done, but if his sleep continues to be utter crap we'll have to re-evaluate.Thanks so much to everyone for weighing in! Really means a lot to have your stories and virtual support.
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@ChiCalGoBee: we got "lucky" that she had coxsackie in her throat so she wanted nothing to touch her mouth anyway lol
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