Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Pacifier Weaning 101


... man I wish someone would have a class like that! Today was the official start to weaning Ayla from her (most precious friend) paci, or"pappy" as she calls it. Im not sure why today- but Ive been nesting and realized how soon lil Leah may make her arrival.


My main goal is to keep the transition as smooth as possible for her. I know its not going to be "smoothe" or easy, but Id still like to try. Today she helped me wash and hang up some of her old clothes in Leah's closet. It was so weird seeing all those little clothes and remembering the first time Ayla wore them, and wondering if Leah would be as tiny as her big sis was. Wow. If I wasn't so tired right now I could cry.


Back on track....


Paci patrol is on full force in our house. I felt the most humane for my 20 mo old was to limit her paci time to when she was in bed. So every time she asked for it, we explained that she could have it when in bed and that she was a very big girl. She definitely showed me what she thought of that... HA A couple times during the day she needed to go to her room and have a lil paci time in her bed and she was quiet can be. I think that really helped her to know it wasn't gone-gone.

As night approached we had some meltdowns, but honestly I think it could have been much worse!


Tonight I am deserately seeking experienced mommies who have been down this road before. I just need some reassurement that its not too early or mean or whatever. My times of cluelessness when parenting are frequent.

6 comments:

Jamie said...

Oh Courtney I remember those days of weaning Emma and I will soon revisit them with Josie. I was like you and asked several mommies and they all told me to get rid of it cold turkey. I threw them ALL away. It was VERY, VERY, hard for a couple of days, but then it was over. No more paci. This is prob. the hardest road to take but the quickest way to get rid of it.
PS If you do this don't save one or you will use it. :)

Jen said...

I did the same thing you are doing with Jackson...about the same age as well. I only gave him the paci at bed for a few weeks. Then, I cut the end of it and the paci lost its sucking power, so he didn't want it anymore. He may have held it for a few days at bedtime, but we just told him it was broken and then he helped us throw it away. Good Luck--if you can stand it when your baby cries, you'll do just fine! Oh, by the time Bryce came along, Jackson never once took the paci...he may have remembered it, but he didn't act like it. He had turned two just a month before Bryce was born, i know Ayla won't quite be two yet--but, it should be fine.

Anonymous said...

I was too much of a softy when Lillie had her paci and she was 3 before we made her give it up. Of course I blamed it on not wanting her to be tramatized by the arrival of Karson, but really we just couldn't say no. She spilt her sippy in her room one day and of course it drew in the ants and she came up with the conclusion that the ants took it to their babies in the ground. We didn't even have to lie, she came up with that one all by herself, so we just went with it! We are working on Karson right now, I think we are gonna just do cold turkey with him.

JessGraceIz said...

Courtney, we are doing the same thing with Izabelle...She calls hers Babie. She doesn't use her Babie at the babysitters, so I thought it was time to take it away. After a couple of different times, we finally we just didn't give it to her she only cried for a few minutes. Then about 3am she woke up crying and the hubby gave it back to her. So, we will continue again tonight. Grace (my oldest) was into Monsters eating her food, so I told her that the monsters ate her paci and she was fine with that.
Good Luck.

Brookeanne said...

Hope you don't mind me putting in my feedback :)! We did the same thing with Elayna at the same age. We let her have it in her bed for three days and then a friend told me about the "Paci-fairy", similarly to the toothfairy, all the paci's were placed in a bowl/basket/etc. we told her the paci-fairy would come and share the paci with little babies who needed them. She was so excited and helped collect all of them. The next day they were gone and they were only mentioned when she reminded us where they had gone to :).

Tera said...

I was very lucky with weaning the paci...just took it away and that was the end of it. Both of them asked for it one time, but once I reminded them that they were big girls and the pacis were gone, they never asked again! :) Braylee didn't need a visual, but with Brynna, I actually had to put all of the pacis in a ziploc bag and toss them in the trash for her to see. Of course I pulled them out after she was done looking to save for the next baby, but in her eyes, they were trashed! :) Good luck!