It hasn't bothered me that Ella still has her pacifier. Or her "pa" as she calls it. Mainly because she only has it when she is going to sleep, but also it is such a sure way to calm her down in ANY situation! We don't use it in those situations very often, and we certainly try not to, but every now and then, we can pull it out if absolutely necessary and its amazing how much her world changes in that second. It's such a crutch for her and she LOVES it beyond a doubt. However, she is almost three, and at the age of three, I think it would start bothering me that she is still so attached to it. So, I vowed a long time ago that we would end this habit by her third birthday.
She is now down to ONE paci. We actually tried to get rid of them when she was 26 months, soon after Easton was born. She had 8 at the time so we were throwing 1 away every single night until they were all gone. One night she got ahead of herself and made the decision entirely on her own to throw them ALL away. I don't think she realized exactly what she was doing, but nonetheless I let her do it. She did great the first couple of nights, but night 3 or 4 she was difficult to get to bed, and she was crying at night and having a really hard time, so we gave in and let her have 2 of them back. The funny thing is, in those few days without them, she NEVER ONCE mentioned her paci or asked for it. But as soon as we gave it to her, she was so thrilled and everything was fine after that. So, that obviously didn't work for us, and now here we are 7 months later and she is down to ONE.
She still had the two paci's until last week, she was messing around while she was supposed to be going potty before bed and she dropped one of her paci's in the potty. I made her throw it away, and figured it was good timing anyway since we are supposed to be getting rid of them soon.
The thing is, I don't want her 3rd birthday to be associated with a "sad" thing in her mind, so I think I've decided to get rid of them by Easton's first birthday. Easton doesn't ever use his pacifier's, so I figure we'll get rid of ALL the paci's in the house around that time and see how we do.
I'm nervous, so if anyone has tips or advice, please share!! The other day she threw such an extreme tantrum that I didn't let her sleep with her paci that night. She did okay, but by the second evening its like she was having withdrawals!
Hopefully she'll do better than I expect, afterall, she will be almost three and a lot more "mature" than she was 7 months ago!
1 comment:
Madi was a paci girl too. We told her that on her third bday she could take her paci to Geoffreys (sp?) and exchange it for any toy in the store. She marched into the store, set her paci up on the stuffed giraffe, picked out her favorite toy and marched out. She never had any trouble after that. It worked great! Good luck! :)
Post a Comment