i'm impatient and at the time this took place i must have had a supah-high pain tolerance well i know i'm gonna get yelled at for giving you kids this idea but i did NOT want to wait months and months and spend money on different-size jewelry to gauge my ears the "right way" so i just flat out took a knitting needle to both of my ears... i had regular sized lobe piercings and just pushed it through (cleaned it beforehand) and it was madd bloody and hurt like hell but i ended up NOT getting an infection and having nice guages in my ears for about two years i'm not suggesting you do this but i just thought i'd share my story
My friend did that, but with a meat skewer. Up to a 4 with one sharp shove. Lots of blood. Very funny. But BAD.
I have 00gs and it wasn't too expensive.. my brother and I shared gauges and just bought our own plugs, and swapped those sometimes too. My ears are not liking the plastic ones I have right now though, so when I go home next, I am going to put in his metal ones.
Good luck getting them to stretch back when you don't want them anymore. You'll probably have cat assholes forever.
I plan on attaching old lady large chunky earrings to my plugs and pretending that the holes aren't there.