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Our Big Girls

I hate to say this, but Emily is almost 3 and a half and still has a pacifier when she sleeps. She is so very attached. We have tried to rid her of the pacifiers in the past, but we always break down and give them back. Emily saw the dentist a week ago and he said that she is developing major problems because of them. He suggested "talking it up" and letting the pacifiers fly to heaven on balloons for babies in heaven.

Today was the DAY! We tied them up and let them go. Didn't work as well as we thought. I want to apoligize to my neighbors who may have a paci on a balloon in their yard or on their roof. Emily thinks she has done something wonderful. We are putting her to bed in a few minutes and I dread it! I KNOW the next few days are going to be rough.

Last night...... Her final time with her "sissy." That is what she calls a pacifier.
Sarah Kate got caught eating Emily's Honey Nut Cheerios.
Any pacifer stories you would like to share? Suggestions?

Comments

kate said…
My aunt's friends told their little one that in order for Santa to come she needed to give up her "binkey"...so it went well for a few days...they kept talking it up and talking it up...and then it turned on them. The little one would see a "santa" in the mall and scream "you can't have my binky." She would see "santa" on the tv and yell "i'm hiding them. don't come to my house." It was a long season, but eventually it all worked out....

Hang in there...I still have my blankie for the late 70s. :)
6:36 PM
Amy Miller said…
My middle daughter, Jensen, had her paci until she was 3 and a half also. We went to the Bahamas on vacation and had dinner at a restaurant where you could watch the sharks being "fed". Jensen was leaning over and her paci fell out of her mouth and into the ocean. We told her that the shark ate it. It was a long rest of the trip to say the least but it worked. No more paci.

However to this day, she is 11 now, I think that she would take a paci if she thought she could get away with it.

Also, you may want to go over to Brandi's Blog off of the Bring the Rain blog. She just had to do the same thing with her youngest and she posted pictures. :)
6:54 PM
Kim said…
I'll say a prayer that she does okay with out "sissy" tonight. I have to admit this post made me sad. E is growing up too fast!
Michelle got Olivia down to having paci only in bed. She would get up and shuffle into the living room and put her paci on the table. The look on her face was always pitiful. Like she was giving up her best friend.
7:56 PM
Christa said…
Your pacifier story sounds really similar to mine! When I was little I had my pacifier till I was 4 or 5! I know...way to old! My mom took me to the dentist and he said if I did not give it up that I would have to have major surgery! So my mom tied all of my pacifiers up to balloons. She told me that another little girl may need one. It worked...but I sure do remember missing my "ninny"! Good luck...hang in there!
8:01 PM
The B's said…
We cut the tip on the paci and then Emma didn't want it anymore. There was LOTS of screaming though...it eventually stopped. Good Luck! :)
8:14 PM
Michelle said…
I read a story about a lady who hung the pacifiers on a tree and the fairy came and hung a present for each pacifier. Her little girl wanted a certain doll, so the fairy brought her that doll and clothes. The next morning the little girl woke up to the baby and the clothes were hanging in the tree. Similar to the tooth fairy! I thought it was very creative, not scary, and a great idea!
6:19 AM
Andrea said…
my 21 month old still has her "sassy" too. We had her taking it only when she slept, but when our second daughter was born this April she freaked and needs it constantly again. SO I don't have any suggestions, but I do understand the worry over the possibility of an overbite, or causing speech delays. We have slowly been trying to get her back to only having it when she sleeps. But today she needed it in the nursery at church since we are new to the nursery -I'm one of those Mom's who hates leaving her kids even for an hour...:-( - I'm thinking that maybe I won't force the passie on my second like I did my first...ha ha- Good luck!
11:22 AM
Sara Campbell said…
We really dreaded it with Eva, but she only woke 1 time that night crying for it. She told us she was still a baby. Ross crawled in bed with her and told her she'd always be his baby even when she grew up. That did the trick. I know it sounds like something you'd read in Guideposts, ha ha, but it really happened that way. Big Ben doesn't take one, how can he be a Campbell?!
11:51 AM
Leslie said…
My parents gave my sister one until she turned four. Her teeth are PERFECT. She called the thing "bobo." HA! They burried them in the ground along with a little tiny tree. We called it the "bobo tree."=)
12:49 PM
Ash and Toby said…
My friend told me that when she was trying to do away with her daughters paci, each day she cut off a small part of the paci until it was down to the holder. By then the little girl no longer wanted it.

Good luck!
4:53 PM
Anonymous said…
awww, I don't have any children but I babysit for plenty and I actually know of some children who still had pacifiers at four :) haha. I mean, I know people always say take them away before two but there are so many children who have them longer. I do feel though that when there starts to be teeth trouble it is better to take them away. I hope she went to bed better than you expected!
5:06 PM
Chocolate Cat said…
Wondering how your night went? When it was time for my daughter to give up bottles we packaged them up and left them out for Easter Bunny and he left a soft toy rabbit in their place. We had not a cry or request for them. It was obviously time that they went and it was habit for her more than anything else. I think she was around 3 years old and it was only the night time bottles we were having trouble stopping. Good luck!
8:10 PM
Kristen said…
My brother in law took my niece to the nursery at the local hospital, letting Nicole carry in a bag full of all her binkys. They looked at the babies and J helped Nicole "decide" to give the bag full of binkys to the new babies who needed them more than she did! She happily handed over the bag at the nurses station (J had called ahead so they knew she was coming) and the nurse made a big fuss to Nicole over what a sweet and giving girl she was and how the new babies are so grateful. I thought this was a pretty good plan and I was more impressed that J thought of it all by himself!

Luckily all my kids have given their binkys up before they turned one. But I have another niece that I have never seen without one. It's sort of a family joke that no one knows what Jane looks like because she always has her bink in her mouth! She's almost 3 now.
9:17 PM
Tara G. said…
I have no wisdom. First child was wonder child. We took it away at 11 months and had a few nights of rough sleep but that was it. #2 never wanted one and sucks his two middle fingers. We're saving for braces. My third will be one on Friday and she is a feisty little thing. It's going to be rough when we take it because the girls have to share a room right now...
6:01 AM
Bethany said…
Our pediatrician recommended that we take the paci away between 12 and 18 months, and as horrible as it sounds, we took both of our girls' binkys away the day of their first birthday. They were too young to really "get" it and it was such an easy transition! I hope you're doing ok and getting some sleep with your own binky bye-bye. If you have any more adorable babies, perhaps just try to get rid of it sooner.
10:23 AM
Yoli said…
I've heard from friends that when you do something special like that, it is MUCH easier for the kids. Way to go! Talk it up what she did and hope it goes well!!!
6:52 PM
Jeff and Steph said…
I saw a thing on Super Nanny similar to what Michelle wrote. The little guy put all of his pacifiers in an envelope for the pacifier fairy. She would then give them to other kids who needed them. In the morning, the mailbox was decorated with feathers, "fairy dust" and other fun stuff. She left a note and a little gift for the guy thanking him for helping out other kids.

Never tried it, but seemed like a really cute idea.
8:46 PM
Melissa said…
http://bachmanville.blogspot.com/2009/05/binky-zebra.html

i just read this binky story on a friends blog yesterday. maybe not a bad idea!
12:13 PM
Sitesx6 said…
I have twins (they are 10 years old now) but when they were little they totally were into the BINKY...they were so attached and I was so afraid to take them away. When they turned two I decided it was probably time, plus, like your daughter, my kids were starting to show teeth issues related to the binky....I was working one shift a week as a nurse- so I made my husband do the binky throw-away when I was at work all night, so I didn't have to listen to the crys....all he did was say, "You are big now and big kids don't use binkys" (He told me this on the phone while I was at work, and I laughed and said it would never work)...IT WORKED perfectly..they all went to the garbage can and threw them away and they never even talked about them again....

WHAT???? why does my husband always get the easy stuff? I was so stressed out for months prior to this big event, and then it ended up going so well.....

Hang in there-
Kelly
5:47 AM
John and Susan Combs said…
Our oldest, Mary Anne, (we also have a just turned one year old, Sarah Gray) had the passy until she was two. I'm a speech therapist, so I've seen the impact a passy can have on speech. You're doing the right thing to take it now.

Well, Mary Anne always had two passys in her bed. She would suck on one and rub the other under her nose...weird, I know. So, we cut the tip off both passys so she couldn't suck on it, but she did have the other to rub under her nose. About a year later, we took the cut off passy and she didn't seem to mind...
1:19 PM
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