This year, we (okay, make that I), decided to set Spring Break goals instead of doing New Year's Resolutions. And the goals were for the kids, not me. Natalie's goal was to stop using pacifiers. Yes, sound the alarms, point your fingers, and talk behind my back. She was still using pacifiers to sleep. Yes, she is old enough to have a conversation peppered with phrases like "It certainly is!" and "Pardon me, I need to use the restroom", can write her own name, and knows the name of every single My Little Pony (and there are seriously about 100), but she still used a pacifier to sleep. It's been our dirty little secret. I'm not too ashamed, because I know exactly how it all started. The first-born was a part-time pacifier user who gave them up easily because he never needed them at night. Liam was a wonderful sleeper...until right about the age of 2...right before Natalie was born. Then Natalie entered the picture...and she was LOUD. Very loud. It was a problem, trying to get the 2.5 yr old with new sleep issues to go to sleep while the very LOUD baby was crying. But, Lo and Behold! she could be very quiet, as long as she had a pacifier! With a pacifier, she turned into a wonderful sleeper - a baby that could sleep 8 hrs a night before she was 2 months old. Heaven...
Fast forward a few years though, and Natalie can still be LOUD. And I still value my sleep (and that of the household). I haven't had the guts to end this arrangement. There was always some excuse...we were going on vacation soon and didn't want to bother other family members...we were going to Russia soon and didn't want an extra burden on Grandma (and this alone drug it out months and months)...the moon isn't aligned quite right. Finally, I looked at the calendar and realized that this is the week. Now or never. Because I know darn well that when Owen comes home and has sleep issues, I will let Natalie keep her beloved pacifiers until she is in college (at which time I would rely on peer pressure to end it for me). Plus, I figured on Spring Break we could afford to be sleepy all week if she screamed for nights on end.
So, back to the Mission Accomplished part of the story: We did it!! Or SHE did it, I should say. It was not nearly as awful as I had imagined all this time. The first night was the worst, of course. There was a good 30-40 minutes of screaming and furious anger. I tried to just cuddle her and give her comfort, because I knew she was having withdrawal symptoms. She just screeched, "Noooooo, I don't want YOUUUUU, I want my pacifiers!!!!" To make matters worse, she was accustomed to using 3 of them...yes three...one in the mouth, and one in each hand. I think the hand motions were just as addictive as the sucking. She would roll that rubber tip around in her hands and it would make a squench, squench sound. So in the midst of her tirade she suddenly stopped screaming, sat straight up, held her hands up and cried, "I need something that squeaks!" I tell you, I searched high and low for something that squeaks. I didn't find much, but she finally seemed satisfied with a chain of those plastic rings that attach to a baby car seat (these were in Owen's room) for baby playtime. They didn't squeak, but the did make a rattly sound.
Night Two was the night of sadness. She asked where her pacifiers had gone, and I told her they went to help newborn babies at night, since she is a big girl now. Her face wrinkled up in complete despair and she wailed, "But I'm NOT a big girl, I'm a baaaaaaaaaby!!!" Oh, it broke my heart. So I sang Rock A Bye Baby, and she liked that. She asked me to sing the alphabet song too, once saying "Z" at the end and once saying "Zed" - per her request.
And Night Three....she hardly mentioned them. Hooray! It's done! Man, if I'd known it would be that easy, I'd have done it years ago. Well, maybe not.
I am so proud of my big girl!
Next post will be about Liam's Spring Break Mission: Shoe Tying.
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