I have decided, much to the dismay of Doug, that it was time to start getting rid of the pacifiers in my house. Evelynn is the problem really, and since she is turning 3 in eight days, I figured it was time to get rid of them. This is a lot harder than it sounds because Eloise also has a pacifier. Now granted, Eloise is not and has never been as addicted to the pacifier as Evelynn, and so I decided to start with her first. The other reason poor Eloise is the guinea pig is because if I take the pacifier away from Evelynn, all heck will break lose if Eloise still gets hers. So no pacifier for Eloise. She's actually doing very well. She's to the point where she will roll over and go to sleep by herself after a few minutes, and she doesn't even cry much anymore. But there are times during the day when she just whines piteously and wants to nurse and nurse and nurse.... and I think, if I just gave her a pacifier she would be happy and I would have my hands free.... and then I feel bad for denying her comfort.... I think this is a lot harder on me than her. I feel so guilty sometimes! But it's for their own good, right? Right? Please let me be right.
I don't plan on started Evelynn on the detachment process until after her birthday, but I already know it's going to be one of the hardest things I've had to do as a parent. How do I know this? Well, a few days ago I told her than she could no longer have her pacifier when I was in the shower. I gave it to her originally to keep her calm and in her bed while I showered, but now she gets out of her bed anyway, so I said it had to go. To put it mildly, this did not go over well. I have never seen/heard her scream so loud for so long. I mean, my shower was maybe 15 minutes, and I could hear her screaming, jumping on the floor, throwing her books, toys, pillows, all over her room the whole time. She was hyperventilating by the time I got out. It took quite a while to distract her enough to calm her down. But I see a silver lining in all this, because every day since this, she asks for her pacifier when I get in the shower, and I tell her no, and she says "Ok. Can I have some books?" and then gets in her bed. It's absolutely amazing. Maybe this will turn out alright... right? Right? ~sigh~ I hope I'm right.
I remember feeling the same way when we were getting ready to get rid of Erik's pacifiers. I was expecting a really difficult time. My friend told me an idea....she said to have Erik cut off the rubber part of the binky, tell it goodbye, then throw it away. We did this with all his pacifiers and he didn't cry at all. One night he asked for it, but when I reminded him we had to throw it away, he was fine. Just a suggestion. Hope it goes well.
ReplyDeleteWow! I have no advice here. Rachel would never, ever take a pacifier. She was always like, "What the heck are you shoving in my mouth? Get it out! Ew!"
ReplyDeleteSo we don't have this problem.
Sounds...challenging. But maybe she's old enough that a sticker chart would work. Those always worked for me when I was little :)
Hi guys! I just found you blog off of the Phipps blog. Our's is garyandlauramorris.blogspot.com. Sorry I don't have advice on the pacifier... neither of my girls would ever take one. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHey! I hope the transition is going smoothly. Just take my Mom's advice- "don't worry too much, I'm sure she'll grow out of it by the time she's a teenager." Thanks Mom.
ReplyDelete