A few weeks ago something happened at our house that was a long time coming. It was something that Steve and I both admit should have happened a lot sooner. But the longer we waited, the harder we knew it would be. We are so excited to announce that Evelyn finally got rid of her pacifier!!
We had been getting closer and closer to this momentous occasion, but it was definitely a very long ordeal. We are talking over a year. And if I'm being completely honest, I don't think either of us really wanted to deal with what we knew was coming. Over the past year we had been gradually removing times when she was allowed to have her pacifier, and as a baby she was allowed to have it whenever she wanted so this was a drastic change when it occurred. Our first step was to limit it to only bed, stroller, and car seat. Stroller was soon eliminated because she refused to sit in a stroller anymore. The car seat happened about a year ago and was relatively easy by leaving it up to her to remember to bring it, and she actually often forgot because she didn't have it as we were getting ready to leave the house.
Then that left only bed, and we really drug our feet on tackling this hurdle. It got to the point where she would go up to her bed in the middle of the day and claim she needed a break...which really meant a paci fix. I had to start hiding it after she woke up. We set a goal for age three. My mom claims that on my third birthday I woke up and threw my pacifier in the trash. I guess I figured Evelyn would be just as easy, but no amount of talking it up would convince her that it was the time to do it. I didn't count on just how stubborn my child is.
Part of the problem was we didn't have a real plan in place and played around with a lot of different scenarios. The paci fairy would take it, she was a big girl now, little babies needed her pacifiers, it was gross... By the last week or so of her having it, she started talking about the paci fairy taking it away and cleaning the old one up and giving it to a new baby because she was a big girl and didn't need it. I guess all the different scenarios mixed together wasn't bad. Whatever the story was, she got it - it was time to get rid of her pacifier. And then we pulled out the big guns. She has been dying to have a sleep over at Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jeff's for a long time now. We decided the sleep over couldn't happen until she was a big girl and didn't need a pacifier anymore. Kelly told her it was gross and she had to get rid of it.
Well one Tuesday afternoon, Evelyn woke up and said, "I'm going to throw out my paci!" I asked her if she was sure and said she would never see it again. She said yes, and we threw that sucker (ha!) away.
Flash forward a few hours to bedtime. "I WANT MY PACI! I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED IT!" She screamed for two straight hours. Steve was ready for her to levitate off the bed and her head to start spinning. She finally passed out, but a few hours later woke in the middle of the night screaming again. The second night she required a little more cuddling than normal, and there were some tears, but she at least wasn't hysterical. She woke up again in the middle of the night, but quickly calmed back down and fell back asleep. By the third night she went right to bed, but took over an hour to get calmed down in the middle of the night. By the fourth night, I think she realized it wasn't coming back and was over it.
Naps, on the other hand, have become a thing of the past. When "break time" came around that first full day without the paci, she looked at me like I had five heads. No thanks mom. And she has really reached the point where she doesn't need the afternoon nap, but boy do I miss it! I really never truly valued that hour until it was gone. I realize now all that I could get done in an hour. A few weeks in and I would do almost anything to even get 20 minutes of quiet time - which is the new struggle.
It's really funny how proud she is of getting rid of the pacifier. Every few days she mentions it, but generally in reference to how she's doing something that big girls do, "So I don't need my paci anymore Mommy. I was little, but now I am big!" No matter how proud she acts on the outside I know she would take it back in a second if she could. She gives a long stare down to any kid we meet when we are out and about that has their own pacifier.
Despite the few days that were hard, Steve and I both agree that it was a lot easier than we anticipated. We also agree that we are so glad we went the pacifier route! Even though we wished we had gotten rid of it a lot sooner (something we did better with Vivian, who hasn't had one in months), we don't regret for a second giving it to her as a baby!
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