Bye-Bye Pacifier!!!!!

We've been working on the issue of a pacifier for quite some time. I remember being the mother who insisted our child would never use a pacifier. As a baby I never had one so my child would not either. Minutes after her arrival home, I soon realized she needed something!!! Ever since then, it has been our friend. We never had a fun name for it- in fact, I've always looked at people questioningly when I hear of the different names. I forget at what age we said it was for night time and nap time only. That has been the case for over a year. When I discovered that she didn't use or ask for a pacifier for naptimes at daycare I became a bit suspicious of its necessity.

Selfishly, as a working mom, I decided that sleep was more important than the battle over the pacifier- and with working on potty training, I wasn't going to push too much on her at once. It all changed when today she told her daddy she would be giving the baby at daycare her pacifier. Daddy lovingly, gently informed her that to give her pacifier to Kaidee would mean she would be without it tonight and every night. She assured him that she wanted to give the pacifier to the baby. The gift was given quite excitedly, I hear.

Fast forward 11 hours. Bath has been given, pjs on, books read, and her fingers are making the symbol for the pacifier. She cried for a bit as Andy and I tried to distract her. Then we read a few more books and when we left the room her tears were done. 82 minutes later we have not heard a peep. Andy said- "There is no way its going to be this easy. If it was going to be this easy we should have done it months ago." I think we both know we have a long night and even week ahead of us. I worry about when she wakes up and wants it to fall back asleep. Bye-Bye Pacifier!!! Its been fun but our girl is growing up!!!

***On a different note, after her multiple ear infections as an infant, we noticed she had a significant speech delay. There is an awesome program in our area called Birth to 3, where a speech pathologist comes to our house weekly for 30-50 minutes and works with A. Anyway, when she joined the program at 20 months, she had the speech ability of a 10 month old. Now, at 31 months, she has the speech of a 28 month old! Her phrases are lengthening and she is much clearer now. It is hard to believe that just a few months ago I was stressing over her few words and comparing her to other children her age. In fact, if she would try to enter the program right now she wouldn't qualify.

Like I said- our girl is growing up! Hard to believe she will be three in July!