Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The pacifier is gone for good!!

Natali has always been quite fond of her pacifier.  However, we are not those parents that let their toddler run around all the time with a pacifier in their mouth.  I can't remember when we made the pacifier only at bedtime rule, but I'm pretty sure it has been over a year at least.  There were exceptions of course.  She always had one on an airplane and we let her have it a lot when we were in Germany.  It helped make her comfortable in those different situations.  For daily life though she was only allowed to have it for naps and at night.  Recently however, Natali had started to wake up in the morning saying her mouth hurt.  Of course the obvious culprit was the pacifier, so I decided it was time to get rid of it for good.  We went to New York to visit my brother and his family early last week, so I let her have it during the trip, but when we got back I decided that was it.  Darren wasn't totally on board with the idea yet, so I waited until he was gone.  Then I hid all of the pacifiers in the house.  That first night Natali was in her normal routine of brush teeth, get pacifier, go to bed, so there was obvious crying at first when I told her the pacifiers were all gone.  That only lasted for a minute or two though and then she went right to sleep.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought it would be a much bigger battle than that.  Of course, she sleeps at daycare without a pacifier, so that might have helped a bit too.  I thought we might also have a problem with her waking up in the middle of the night asking for it, but that didn't happen.  She slept right through the night.  The next night she asked for a pacifier again, but didn't protest at all when I told her they were all gone.  Since then she hasn't asked again.  It has been a whole week now.  My little baby is growing up!

On another note, we are going to try potty training again this weekend.  It has been since Thanksgiving when we tried previously.  Recently Natali has started announcing every time she pees.  Of course, then she asks to go potty after she has already gone in her diaper, so it really isn't helpful.  I'm hoping this is a sign that she is really ready this time.  We'll see how it goes.