Well, here is accidental parenting at it's best. :) Avery is almost 21 months old ( 2 in April) and is what we like to call our " little addict." Her addiciton is worse than heroin and more satisfying that chocolate. She has been attached to her pacifier (pa-pac) since she was 3 months old. Our first mistake was believing that she would be as easy to parent as Madison. Madison was textbook - everything we did seemed to work. She was easy to reason with at an early age and could grasp ideas that we never thought possible. So, at 18 months, we cut the tip off the pacifier and said it broke and she moved on. No questions asked.
Avery is a different story. I write this after a full week sleepless nights (3-4 hours tops) and top-of-the-line continuous screaming. This truly is her comfort item, sort of like my Starbucks. :) We have read every book, message board and web site about weening a paci. We know all about the Pacifier Fairy, sending it up to heaven on a balloon for other babies (thanks, Stacy), cutting the tip, putting yucky stuff on it, shopping for a "big girl" present, introducing new security items, the walk in/walk out method, etc. We're tried most of it, only to have failed. She is a fighter and is not budging. Should we be surprised? Last night she begged for some Frank's Red Hot Sauce to dip her bread in.......and to our amazement she ate it all and asked for more!
Last night at 4 am, we gave in and gave her the infamous purple paci back. She finally went to sleep at 5...in our bed. During nap time, I took her paci out of her bed after she was asleep just to find her roaming around in her room for it 20 minutes later.....Mom and Dad 0, Avery 100 ---what is your prediction?
This has impacted our family so much that we're all stresse-out, tired crabby patties and are out of ideas. You may be laughing, but, seriously, until you've experienced this you have no idea! But we shall prevail! We're keeping on keeping on and hoping that before she's 2 she'll find something to substitute that security item with.
So what's your security item? And would you scream and stay awake until someone gave it back to you? :)
--orginally posted on January 6, 2007
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