Emma is 25 months old. She is still terribly addicted to her pacifier. I know, I know - I should have taken that little miracle-worker away 19 months ago. The problem with the pacifier is that is has ALWAYS been the magic way to calm her down.
We decided that before we took away the one thing that helped Emma soothe herself, we needed to conquer the issue of nighttime sleeping. Emma has never been a good sleeper. There was a period of about 15 months where Paul and I were averaging 4 hours of sleep a night - sometimes more, often less.
Then there was the long, dark stretch of February, March, and April. During this sleepless season Emma had learned to climb out of her crib and we put her in a toddler bed. But she didn't like to be by herself and would cry and cry and cry and eventually throw up from all the crying so we threw a queen-sized mattress in her room and took turns sleeping in there with her. This did not solve sleep issues for the parents because Emma likes to sleep spread eagle. She would also wake up routinely throughout the night, lean over and touch your eyelids. Weird.
By the end of April we had had enough! We put her twin sized mattress back in her room, put up a bed rail and called the co-sleeping quits. She, remarkably, adjusted to that pretty well.
A few nights of crying but ever since - sweet slumber.
This is what happens when you take away her passy.
Which brought us to the next hurdle - the pacifier. I have to say, I am a little ashamed of all the photos I have of her with the pacifier. I don't post a lot of them because I KNOW that little gadget shouldn't be in her mouth anymore.
So yesterday, was Passy D-Day.
We went to the park in the morning - I was trying to wear her out so she would be ready for a nap and fall asleep easily because I made her quit cold-turkey at naptime.
This did not go well. Not at all. She SCREAMED for 20 minutes and eventually fell asleep, but only for about 30 minutes
(normal nap is closer to an hour and half, sometimes two).
Last night, however, she got smarter about this whole traumatic experience.
As I was putting her to bed, this was our conversation:
Mom: No passy tonight, Emma.
Emma: No passy?
Mom: nope
Emma: Passy all gone? (whimpering and bottom lip starting to protrude)
Mom: all gone. No more passy, Emma. OK?
Emma: Momma . . . have donuts?
Basically - she has learned how to bargain.
If she was going to give up her beloved pacifier, she was gonna get something in return!
Her demands were simple, but oh-so-Emma.
She wanted donuts for breakfast.
DONE!
And she made good on her end of the deal - she went to sleep without crying and slept all night, pacifier free!
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