No More Pacification

After what might be considered way too long, we decided to get rid of the pacifiers for Sydney. We tried to get rid of them last summer too. It seemed to be working well. I don't want to name names, but someone related to me by marriage folded like a card table. We made excuses all fall for why it wasn't a good time to try again, and we finally stopped allowing ourselves to postpone it any longer.

 We decided to cut the pacifiers one per night so that she would find them broken and then throw them away. That way we weren't taking them away completely cold turkey. We talked it up for a few days beforehand, and then we started cutting them up on Friday at naptime. By Sunday night the final pacifier was broken. Sydney was pretty upset, but at the same time she understood that the pacifiers were all broken so she couldn't have them anymore. She cried for about 15 minutes and then did her normal, going to bed routine. She usually babbles for about 30 minutes before she falls asleep. She went right from the crying to the babbling and then fell asleep like normal. The only part that I thought would be difficult was whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night. Usually when this happens she calls for us to find her pacy because it has either fallen on the ground, or is lost under her mountain of stuffed animals. This time she cried for me to cover her with her blanket. I'm now looking forward to the day when she can pull up her own blanket, and I can sleep in to later than 4 am.

 Day 2 went pretty well too. She called to sit on the potty. She usually hates to sit on the potty, but she did it. She also kept telling me to leave the bathroom. I stood outside the door, but I didn't go far because I think she was going to try to get into the trash to double check that the pacifiers were broken.

Day 3 was more difficult. She was playing us like a fiddle. Books, potty, everything to postpone bedtime. We got her down and she only cried for 5 minutes. However we had also just gotten a space heater for our room so that it wasn't so cold for Kylie. This blew the fuse which knocked out Sydney's night light. She got very upset. We figured out the problem and she calmed down pretty quickly. Unfortunately we forgot to unplug the other heater so it happened again. Cue meltdown number 3. I calmed her down by making sure she had every stuffed animal and her blankets.

We got this!