So this weekend we began "Operation No More Pacifier"...and lets just say, we were fighting a losing battle. One of the main reasons we ended up "giving in" is because Lydia just seemed so sad on Saturday. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying, she was extremely tired, she was clingy, didn't play very much...she was sad and confused.
Here's how our weekend went:
I picked Lydia up at 1:30 from Leah's house on Friday. Leah is good at keeping the pacifier away from Lydia while she's happy and playing, so Lydia didn't have her pacifier and I kept it from her the rest of the afternoon. She only asked for it once or twice, but then quickly forgot about it. We put her to bed around 7:00 and she didn't even ask for her pacifier. About 2 minutes after I put her to bed, she started crying. It was a quiet, tired cry and lasted less than 5 minutes. She didn't wake up again until 3:45 and wasn't even really crying and quickly went back to sleep. She slept in until 6:00, like normal.
Saturday was a rainy, gloomy day, which meant we couldn't go outside and Lydia was getting restless. She has a runny nose and I can tell she doesn't feel 100%. We put her down for a nap around 9:30, since she was fussy and acting tired. It took her until 10:00 to fall asleep...she screamed and we constantly had to go in there. She slept for 30 minutes and refused to go back to sleep without her pacifier. We fed her lunch and then took her on a few errands. We put her back down for a nap around 1:30. It took her almost an hour to fall asleep and then she slept for 40 minutes. Luckily, this time she went back to sleep after a bit and slept another 40 minutes.
The rest of the day she was sad and fussy, like I mentioned earlier. Her eyes were so sad! I felt so bad for her. We went to church Saturday night while Brian put up Christmas decorations. She did great at the nursery and was happy to be home. Saturday night was horrible. She screamed when we put her to bed and woke up several times. I tried Supernanny's idea of sitting in the room until they fall asleep, which worked, until Lydia woke up 30 minutes later and didn't see me. We eventually gave her the pacifier around 4:30am, after being awake with her for about 2 hours, and she slept in until 7:00!
We've decided that for this week, we're going to be super strict with not giving the pacifier unless she's going down for a nap or going to bed. Then we'll work on taking it completely away. I honestly wouldn't be so concerned about taking it away except that her verbal skills aren't where they should be. I really think she has learned how to communicate around the pacifier and still communicates that way when she doesn't have it. I want her to learn to talk and communicate without grunts and crying. I know every child is different and she'll start talking when she's ready. But I don't want to be the one who is causing her to be held back, by allowing her to have the pacifier whenever she wants it. I also know she doesn't NEED the pacifier, it's just a comfort item.
I hope Lydia, Brian and I get the sleep we need tonight and we stay strong with not giving her the pacifier during the day.
Lydia and her pacifiers:
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