the Beloved suckey

Well, Nadia is 20 months old now and for the past many months I have been wanting to get rid of her soother. It really hasn't bothered me much until a few weeks ago. Which is when she really got addicted to it. She used to have it every once in a while during the day, but lately it's always in her mouth. So I talked to a friend who inspired me to just do it - and get rid of it once and for all. Her child was the same way, very addicted, and he was fine after a few bouts of screaming. Could this work for us too?

I was going to wait until Wednesday, after Young Mom's where she needs extra comfort because she is playing with a ton of other kids for a few hours. But, funny thing is that after church I put her suckey in my purse and then last minute Grandma said, "Why don't I take Nadia and you can go out for lunch in the city with Auntie Joanne." Cool, so we went and the soother came with me. Opps. Well, Nadia didn't even seem to need it for her nap, and she didn't ask for it all day. So I was encouraged that it must be a good day to say good bye to a bad habit.

I cut the entire end off both soothers and felt completely sick doing it - no turning back. Then in the evening when she asked for it. I put it on the kitchen floor and told her where it was. She saw it, giggled with sheer glee, and popped it in her mouth. Then we waited for the screaming. She knows there are 2 soothers so she examined that one and decided it was broken so she better find the other one. She went looking. Again I put the other soother next to the first in the kitchen. She giggled with glee, thinking oh good. She examined both very carefully and we helped her decide they were broken. She wasn't giving up - there must be a good one in the diaper bag. She tore it apart looking and when we got to the bottom she realized that both the soothers are broken. I asked her if we should throw them out because they're garbage now.

To my surprise, she gladly agreed, and tossed them in. She looked a few times after that to make sure they were still broken and that was it. I don't think she's ever laughed and giggled so much in the evening before. Until bedtime that is. And without thinking, upon her request, I read her a story that had a suckey in it. Opps. We didn't finish the story because the whining was too great. So she whined for 45 minutes in her crib. So we'll see how tomorrow goes. Oh, boy! What have we done?!

Annalisa