As I write this, all the children in my house are asleep, and nary a paci in sight. It wasn't without tears at naptime and at bedtime tonight, but they all did it.
Why now? Honestly, the boys have been chewing holes in the pacis lately and they aren't cheap. Might as well give them money to eat instead. Today at naptime we found ourselves without three pacis, so that was the end of the road.
We explained that the pacis were all gone. We've been having the boys throw away the ones they chewed up and telling them that soon the pacis will be all gone, so they knew. They didn't like it. But they knew.
Isaac struggled the most at bedtime, with real tears and everything. Alex didn't manage to take a nap without his paci, but did OK at bedtime, probably because he was tired from not napping. Sam seemed to take it all pretty well in stride, though Isaac's crying kept him awake at bedtime.
The one who has had it the hardest is Amelia. She has been struggling to give up the paci for a long time. We didn't force her to give it up before the boys were born, in large part because she still wasn't a good sleeper and we needed all the help we could get on that front. And once the boys were born? Well that was like asking an alcoholic to give up the booze while living in a liquor store.
When Amelia turned four she said she was going to give up the paci. We started working with her, but it was so hard for her, and we were just getting the boys to sleep well at night. So that was really about us not having slept in a year and a half. I think we were entitled! But we did limit the paci to bedtime only, more or less.
Then Aunt Allie asked Amelia to be a flower girl in her wedding this summer. And we told her that she couldn't be a flower girl unless she gave up her paci. Well, she really wants to be a flower girl. Really, really wants to. But you know what? It's still hard to give up the here and now for something in the distant future.
The distant future started feeling a little closer the other day when the flower girl dress arrived in the mail. After three paci-free nights Amelia got to open the package. After two more she will get to try it on. I'm hoping by then it will stop being so hard for her, but even tonight she cried to have her paci again. Poor girl!
I'm bracing for an ugly naptime for the boys again tomorrow, but praying that bedtime goes better and that it gets easier for Amelia since I keep telling her that.
I went in and rocked a crying Isaac for the last time about two hours after we put the boys down tonight. We rocked for a few minutes and then he asked to go back to his bed. As I laid him down he said, "The pacis are all gone. I chewed them up." I didn't hear another peep out of him after that.
It seems that once Isaac analyzed the situation, he was OK with it. At least for tonight.
© Trippin' Mama 2011
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