Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Three nights and counting!

We are on our way to becoming pacifier-free!! (touch wood!)

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that we still had a pre-schooler in the house with a soother. Aili has advanced early through so many milestones, such as talking in full sentences, toilet training and comprehending and executing simple commands, that it was hard to understand why she insisted on holding onto this last stage of babyhood. I should have weaned her off of it earlier, especially with all of her breathing troubles. However, truth be told, I just didn't have the heart to listen to her cry for nights on end!

Connor, on the other hand, took to toilet training like a duck to dirt, but relinquished his pacifier at an early age. It helped that he happened to bite the end of it off one night as I was leaving his room! I told him it was broken now and had to be thrown out. That was it - I didn't hear another peep about it, except the next morning when he saw it in the trash can in his room. He pulled it out, saw it was "broken" and promptly threw it away again!

Luckily, while we were away this weekend at my cousins' place, Daniela mentioned to me how she weaned one of the girls off of her soother by telling her they had forgotten it at a relative's house, after a visit.

When we got back late on Sunday night, I remembered our conversation as I was preparing to put Aili to bed. When she asked me for her soother, I went through the motions of looking for it through all of our bags. I asked her if she remembered to pack it with her toys. I looked high and lo ("and the Oscar goes to..." ;)) and finally told her that I thought we may have lost it or even left it "at our friends'". She went to bed fine, with no crying, although it did take her much longer to fall asleep. She also mentioned several times that we had to "go to our friends' house and get it".

We repeated the whole sequence at naptime on Monday and at bedtime last night and tonight. The ironic thing is that she has been sleeping without a soother for at least a year at daycare!! There have been no tantrums or tearful nights and she is becoming accustomed to falling asleep without it - although she still tries to use every trick in the book to avoid bedtime!!

You know what I mean...
"I have to pee."
"I want my Daddy"
"I want Mommy"
"I want to cuddle Mommy/Daddy/Connor"
"I want to read a story"
"I need some water"
"I want {insert closest toy on floor here} in my bed"
"Fix my blanket please"

and so on and so forth.... But we are sootherless!!

Now, to get rid of "Blankie"...

5 comments:

  1. Yippee!!!!!

    I am so glad that we ditched the soothers when the girls we very young (well before they were one) or I am positive that we would be right with you on this.

    It is so funny how many tricks they can pull out to stall bed time. I'm sure I've heard them all times 2.

    Glad to hear she has given up on the soother though, the story times and cuddles you can live with I bet!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WTG Aili! I remember doing that very thing with Malachi when we weaned him from it. And isn't it unbelieveable how many times they can get up at night?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's awesome news!!! DJ still sucks her fingers, but now we are telling her that it is only ok at bedtime. Hopefully this will soon stop. DJ also says the same thing as Aili, water, toy , toilet, etc... Makes for an interesting evening routine. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh I have to follow your suit soon. Kendra loves that thing and is very whiny about it. It's hindering her speech as sometimes she won't let it go. I got to get more sticky about only at night time and then take the big plunge. Hugs and I hope it goes well!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh I love this story! Clever! I agree give yourself an Oscar! We got lucky as well when DD accidently dropped it off the balcony. Ooops! We also took advantage of the moment to wean DD off the soother. All gone! That was easy! I wouldn't of had the heart to listen to her cry all night either!

    I have a bedtime staller too! But lately I've been putting her to bed a half hour later...and the stalling has stopped. In fact she annouces now it's bedtime.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments - I appreciate the feedback!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...