Pacifier Blues

We finally bit the bullet and got rid of Eve's pacifier this past weekend.  She has been way too attached to the thing, although since about the age of one (I think that's right) has only been using it for naps and bedtime.  Still....it had to go....

 

We were nervous as to how to go about it, but heard several people recommend snipping off the sucky part, and then giving it to her so she's realize it's not the same anymore and give up wanting it.  We'd also heard of having her "trade it in" for something else.  We decided to try a combo of both methods.  The results were/are mixed.

 

We started by snipping it off:

 

 

I think the snipping was more for me than anything.  That way, there really was no going back even if she started crying for her pacifier and I was weak enough to succumb. 

 

We had ready a special baby doll that Eve had picked out earlier that day at the store.  (Can I just say they have some WEIRD looking dolls at the store these days?)  I was happy to find this very normal (and cheap!) one:

 

 

So we let Eve have her pacifier (she calls it her "pink pass") with the end snipped off.  We explained that it was "broken". 

 

 

She gave it a try, just to be sure.  She had to agree that it was, indeed, broken.

 

 

We then asked her if she wanted to trade it for a baby doll.  She willingly gave her broken pass to Andrew in exchange for the pink dolly. 

 

So far, so good.

 

 

She did try to see if the pacifier would work any better on the baby doll then it did on her with the end missing.  It didn't.

 

 

With high hopes, we put her in bed and....were up most of the night with her crying.  Sigh....we were all very tired in church on Sunday!  But since then, she's done much better.  She still asks about the "pink pass" before naps and bedtime so we remind her that it's broken and tuck her in.  And she sleeps!  It's been a few days and she goes down now with no tears over her dearly departed pacifier.  I guess you could call that a success!