Bye Bye Boppy

We did it! Reese is now "boppy" free. I'm sure most of your jaws have dropped by now and you are thinking, "Are you kidding me? She still had that thing?" Yes, the answer is yes. I can be a wus of a mom when it comes to certain things and making her get rid of her pacifier was most definitely one of them. (I debated about even blogging about this because I was kind of embarrassed, so don't make me feel bad about it. And besides, it's not like I was weening her of a drug addiction. :) )

Our initial plan was to cut Reese completely from the pacifier when she was 18 months old. Well, let's just say that this picture pretty much sums up how she felt about that idea. "It's mine and there's nothin' you're gonna do about it."(From the very beginning of her being able to talk she's always called a pacifier a "boppy." Totally random but it stuck.)

I quickly discovered that 18 months was much too late because by then she was a complete ADDICT. So I decided to just use it for naps and bedtime and that I would for sure cut it off from her when she was 2. Well, 2 years quickly turned into "we better wait until after the baby." But after Claire was born Reese got even worse with it. I really think she was using it to comfort herself with not getting as much attention now that there was a new baby around.

My pediatrician actually told me at this point to wait until Claire was 4 months before trying to cut it off, but I just couldn't take the tantrums over it anymore. It had gotten to a point that she couldn't handle being without it. It was in her mouth ALL. THE. TIME. I know orthodontically right now it's not an issue, but it definitely can be socially. It's funny because I've found that some think it's no big deal for a child to have it at her age while others think it's obnoxious. I'm somewhere inbetween.

Okay, enough of the reasoning behind it. It's done, it's gone, and I love it! We did it cold turkey almost 3 weeks ago (it just took me forever to blog about it). I woke up and rounded up the pacifiers then snipped the nipples off so she couldn't suck on them anymore.

Right after breakfast she asked, "Where'd my boppy go?" That's when I pulled them out and showed her that they were broken. She was completely confused and tried sucking on them anyway. When it didn't work she pulled it out of her mouth, told me they were broken, and even helped me put it in a trash bag. "Wow," I thought, "this is going to be easier than I thought." Not so much! 2 minutes later she was hysterically crying and frantically going through the trash bag trying to pull them out and yelling at me to "figskit, figskit" (fix it). This totally broke my heart and I will admit that I even teared up. (Hey, I was a thumb sucker and I still have bad memories of hiding behind a couch cushion in order to suck my thumb since my mean babysitter, Michelle wouldn't let me. Family, cue the M.A.S.H. theme music now.)

I kept her pretty distracted that day with lots of dancing, cuddling to Elmo, laying on a blanket outside to count planes, and of course...eating cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. (I thought I'd return the giving you an oreo when you're sad favor.)

Sleeping time is when it was really tough though. For her nap she was so hysterical without it that after about 45 minutes of screaming she climbed into the pack'n'play we had set up earlier for her dollies' bed, and just crashed.

That night was even worse. She was such a mess and we had to Super-Nanny Style put her back in her bed 30 times. She's been such a GREAT night sleeper for so long that this was really sad to see her try and figure out how to soothe herself to sleep again. It has definitely messed with her sleep a bit, but we're slowly working that out.

It's been 3 weeks now and she's overall doing great. She never even talks about it and even helps give Claire her boppy without even mentioning her own.

So one battle down and definitely more to go. Be looking for the sequel "Bye, Bye Diaper" that should hopefully be coming out sometime this fall.