I have dreaded this day since she was 2 days old, and we decided to try giving her a pacifier. Actually, if I am being honest...its been a fear of mine since I found out I was pregnant! The day we take away the paci...dun dun dunnnn!!! After working in day care for quite some time, I realized how many kids still use a pacifier until they are like 3 years old which I think is way too old!! The kids who where attached to there "paci's" "wubbas" or whatever else they were called did not talk as well, and often had slobbery rashes around their mouths from all of the saliva that drips out when they are sucking on their paci 24/7. I love love love the paci, dont get me wrong, but I didnt want my kids using one until they were in kindergarten.
I had heard that there was a window of time, between the ages of about 6-9 months where they are supposed to kind of lose interest in it and that is when you strike--but somehow I missed that with Eliza =} So here we were at 15 months and she was getting more and more attached, so something had to be done!! It was taking over!! We started out only giving it to her at nap time, bed time, and sometimes in the car so she could go to sleep. But eventually she started expecting it as soon as we got in the car (although she knew to hand it to us once we were getting out...so cute), and then recently she would go and some how sneak it out of her crib and walk around with it until she got caught!! Little goob!!
I have been saying I want to take it away for the past 3 months, since she turned one...but lets face it, I loved having it for those "emergency" moments, and I was scared for what might come during the weaning process. Also, we are in an apartment, and we have some elderly neighbors whos bedroom wall shares ours (bad building structure if you ask me), and I knew that it would be so annoying to hear a baby up loudly screaming at 3 in the morning for her paci. But fortunately David is on the same page as me on this, and is a little stronger sometimes when it comes to these things, so this weekend we decided to go for it. Sunday was her first day sans paci. She did good in the car, and only fussed a little (although David and I singing every primary song we could think of helped a bit), and then the real test...bedtime!! She did amazing!! She cried for maybe 10 mins, which was hard but then went to sleep. She woke up at 6 very upset and was only getting more and more hysterical so I had to take her out of the room and I rocked her on the couch...She tossed and turned in my lap and then finally almost an hour later she climbed down, walked into our room and pointed to her crib...I kindly obliged, layed her down and turned on her music and she was almost asleep when the music started skipping and I thought I could be sneaky and change it real quick, but not so. she started screaming again and so I gave up and put her in bed with us =/ I know, I know. But last night was a real win!! Right before we were going to go to bed she woke up and I went in and just rubbed her back and "shhhh shhh shhhhd" until she turned over and went back to sleep, only a couple of minutes. She slept until 8:30!! Naptime today was really the first time for a nap in her crib since we started this, because we had a busy weekend, and it wasnt too bad, but it took her about 20 mins to go to sleep and then she only slept for a little over an hour. Not a bad start though.
This next baby I will definitely pay better attention during that 6-9 month period!!
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Wow! You are a great mother. It takes a lot of effort and lost hours of sleep to get it done! I think most of the effort just comes from the parents. If people just take the time like you guys and endured a few days maybe weeks, it would be over for the rest of their life! :) Great job Jessica. I will have to try the 6-9 month window next baby! (we have waited until 2 years old, but it is really tough by then)
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