Tonight is the night that I have been dreading for a while now. We are taking away Emma's pacifier. I felt okay about waiting until she was 2 to take it away (I know Sarah McGooden is rolling her eyes right now b/c she told me we needed to do it a long time ago), but the other day Emma showed me that she can now stick the whole paci in her mouth. So, the paci has now become a choking hazard. I know she can't swallow it, but I kept having visions of the paci getting lodged in her mouth. For the past few days I have been telling her that babies (like Carley) use pacifiers, but big girls like her and Grace (9 year old cousin that she adores) don't. She seemed to kind of understand. This evening I cut the top off of one of the paci's and left it on the table for her to see. She brought it to me and kept trying to put it in her mouth. I told her that it was broken and that we needed to throw it away. She willingly took it to the trash. I thought this was a good sign. She found another cut one and never picked it up. Emma has been coughing at night so we have been giving her some prescription/knock you out medicine before she goes to bed. I don't believe in giving drugs to make babies go to sleep, but in our case tonight it might actually be helpful. It will help the coughing, but I'm hoping it will also make her so sleepy she won't think about having the paci. I think the thing that worries me most is that she is such a great sleeper and I don't want this to change that. It has been 10 minutes since I left her room and she is crying instead of happily talking like she normally does. She is very attached to her blankie and she still has that. I still have my blankie (it lives under my bed, but I slept with it until John and I got married-I'm not ashamed) so I don't care if she always has a blankie. Say a prayer for us tonight and those of you who have lived through this I would love some advice. I know it is going to be a longer process than just tonight. Its one of those moments when you know you are doing the right thing, but it is breaking your heart on the inside.
Allison
3 Comments
Published by John Nelson
on October 07, 2005 at 6:15 PM.
Allison
Update #1: It's been an hour, and still LOTS of crying. We've both gone in to hold her, and she does fine...until we put her back in her bed.
Update #2-I went in there to comfort and she wanted to play. We let her play a bit and then put her back in bed with a teether to chew on. She's wining, but not crying like before.
Max cried an hour and 45 minutes the first night but it decreased steadily and it wasn't even an issue the third night. Throw away all the pacifiers! I went searching through the house looking for one the 2nd night... she'll be fine! Really.