9.22.2008

Farewell, Dear Friend


I decided that today would be the day I break Lorelai of the pacifier habit. I just layed her down for her morning nap sans pacifier and told myself to not go back in her room for 10 minutes. Sigh.
My original plan was to stop the pacifier after she got her first few teeth. My favorite parenting book advised getting rid of the paci between 4 and 6 months. I figured that teething would be really rough with the first few teeth and that she'd appreciate having good 'ole paci around for comfort. The first tooth or 2 would probably come at 6 months, so the timing would be perfect. I was kinda right...it did provide her some comfort with those teeth, but the teething was worse with the molars which came AFTER the first few teeth...and she didn't get her 1st tooth until she was like 9 months old!
The other phase which perpetuated the paci use was the screaming phase. Most babies seem to go through this phase where they figure out "Hey! I can SCREAM! SCREAMING at random times for no reason is FANTASTIC! I especially like to do it when we are out in public!!!". No problem...just keep shoving that paci in her mouth.
(pardon me, it has been 10 minutes...)
(ok...wont go back in there for 15 minutes)
Once Lorelai turned a year old, I really started to feel that we could limit the pacifier to just in her crib. This was my personal test to see if she really needed the thing. We ran errands, attended play dates, and went out to dinner without the thing...it never was an issue like I thought it would be. "Ok!", I told myself, "we're keeping up this addiction for nothing!"
I will admit, too, that I want Lorelai to stay a baby forever. If she stops being a baby, then I'll want another one...and I'm not ready for that. Lets face it, seeing your kid with a pacifier fits that "baby" mold...kinda like having a bottle before bed...which I am still doing. Lets not talk about that today.
A few weeks ago, I knew that Tim would be out of town for 3 days, and I thought to myself, "That would be a great time to take away the pacifier!" From what I've read, 3 days seems to be the magic amount of time it takes kids to "get over it" with habits concerning sleep.
You may be asking yourself, "why would she want to do this ALONE?" Eh...I just felt like if I waited for Tim to be home for this then:
1. We would feed off each other's frustration of listening to a baby crying repeatedly.
2. It would waste a weekend. Weekends are for fun, not crying.
3. 3 days would also encompass a work day-either a Friday or a Monday...how would you like to be working in your home office while trying to tune out a crying baby all day? Poor Tim.
4. If I am able to pull this off by myself, I will probably earn myself a nice gift!!!!
(ok...it has been 15 more minutes...wait...she's quiet....SHE'S QUIET!!!!)
Oh baby! this is going better than I thought! I'll blog an update later.

2 comments:

Amy Clary said...

good luck! you may inspire me to do the same if you succeed. I'm just a scared-y cat and i don't want to do it on my own.
i think we should get the one nap a day thing down first, though.

appleandi said...

it's bedtime, how's it going?