Saturday

Toddler Tales: Pacifier

In the beginning (2008), I was anti-pacifier...

...but as time went on, I warmed up to the little thing.

It offered more slumber-filled nights and less stress-filled church meetings.
It gave our new parent selves a bit more freedom from cry-induced craziness
and our baby was happily soothed.

Once he got a bit older and learned more self-soothing techniques we only gave it to him for naps & bed time. We kind of let this slide for a longer time than we originally planned...because...well, he was a great sleeper & we didn't want that to change!

Now that he is the big brother, it's time for change.

Last night we told him there were no more pacifiers.

He pointed to the top drawer in his dresser (where they are typically stored): "drah-er"

Nope, they're not in there. You can go to bed without it.

He pointed to the floor (where he typically drops them) : "flooh-er"

No, no pacifiers on the floor--you will be ok, though. You can go to sleep without one!

He pointed to the baby : "geen one"
--When the baby came home, J was informed that he could only use the blue ones now, since the green ones were for Baby N.

Oh--the green pacifiers are for Baby N. He is a baby, but you are such a big boy now you don't need a pacifier anymore!!

He was not convinced by the excitement in our voices
or the encouraging smiles on our faces.
He stared, brow furrowed--trying to figure out how this was possible.
He looked around the room as if it had been shaken by an earthquake--
his world was changed in an instant.

We said our nightly prayers swapped 'good nights'.

It took him about an hour to get to sleep, but he did it--without crying, AND without his blue pacifier.

One pacifier-less night down...

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

Good job! Hopefully he'll be over it in no time! George's favorite pacifiers were blue. He hasn't asked for them recently, but he's still having a hard time with naps.

Emily said...

I was totally biting my nails by the end to see if the loving conversation ended in a meltdown or not. Phew! Hope it keeps going!

Linda said...

Sounds like it is going to work!

I have heard all kinds of stories about 'the end of the pacifier'...from going to a river and tossing them over the bridge to parents cutting off the bulb so there is no suck left...

in general I think the 'you are a big boy now' is a great approach!