Could it be true? Am I announcing this too soon? Is our home actually soother free?! Do you remember The Great Soother War of 2010? That was a rough week in our house hold with minimal sleep for everyone.
Wednesday night I got it in my head that maybe it was a good day to get Livi off her soother. Although I had thought that the next time we try to wean her we might try a different approach, I had not planned on trying it on Wednesday. This was a very impulsive decision. Jon and I hadn’t even discussed it since he wasn’t even home!
I was reading her a book before bed when I saw my opportunity. I palmed her soother and excused myself for a minute. With the scissors in hand I hesitated for a moment… What if it didn’t work? I didn’t know where any extra’s were since we sent most of them up to the “Soother Fairy” in November. What about when we leave for Bulgaria? Would she need her soother because we wouldn’t be there? Seeing as Bulgaria will probably be another 3-4 months I went for it and snipped the very tip of the soother. I snuck it back in to her room and read her one last story before bed.
When she reached for her soother it took her a full minute to notice anything had changed. I thought it might have been pointless. Then she stopped sucking, got a funny look on her face and took her soother out. She held it out to inspect then said in one of the saddest, most pathetic voices I’ve ever heard from her “I can’t get it to squeak.” I played dumb and so she modeled the squeak for me by pursing her lips… I was able to hold back my giggle.
I explained to her that she must have grown in to a big girl (she has been very excited about growing big lately), so the soother broke because she was too big for it. Is it bad that I lied to my child? She was sad that her soother had “broke” but there were no tears. I didn’t take the broken soother away from her but she did NOT want it anymore. We left it on her bookshelf. I cuddled with her for a little extra time, drew on her face and neck, and sang her my lullaby a few extra times. She took about 2 hours to fall asleep but eventually she did it! Each successive night has taken her less time to fall asleep, although it seems to be averaging out now and she needs a lot of encouragement and cuddles from us.
Nap times are a similar story. The first nap, she didn’t nap. The second, it took her about an hour to fall asleep. Daddy seems to have the patience and magic touch. I’m on my own tomorrow though, so we’ll see what happens.
I felt pretty defeated about the whole thing today and was entertaining going out to buy another soother or even ending her naps! Oh, the horror! She has definitely being on the road to eliminating her naps, (only slept about 1-1.5hrs even with her soother), but I’m not ready to say goodbye yet! I would like to get Livi to the point where she can immediately just relax in bed, fall asleep quietly and quickly and sleep soundly. Surprisingly, since taking the soother away, she has slept each night through. No nightmares or waking up looking for her soother or Fuzzy.
Overall, this time around is going much better. She is not crying. She is not grumpy. She is sleeping soundly through the night. It is just a matter of her figuring out how to put herself to sleep without the soother. I was hoping she would enjoy her Fuzzy more now but it seems that it was a package deal with the soother. We aren’t going back on our decision this time. The soother is gone. I just hope it doesn’t mean we have to give up her naps or she needs us to sooth her to sleep. Bye Bye beloved soother 🙂
Becoming Human 