Goodbye Pacifier!

When Claire was a newborn, I would plead with her to take a pacifier with absolutely no luck.  She wanted the real deal - all the time.  After our very troubled beginning of our breastfeeding journey, I finally got my supply up and she didn't want to eat all day and night.  At that point, I was okay with the fact that she didn't want a pacifier, one less thing to break her of down the road.

Fast forward 8 months, Claire had been sick on and off for two months.  We just couldn't get her well.  We started the Daniel Fast with church and I was fasting and praying for an end to our medical drama.  About week and a half in and Claire was admitted to the Helen DeVos Children's hospital for RSV and double pneumonia.  We were there for an entire week, but she was getting better.  It was during this time that the pacifier came back into our lives.  Claire had started to self wean during the day and I really didn't want to go backwards so the pacifier came to my rescue.  Ever since then her an 'Paci' have been an item.  After she turned two, Paci was only allowed in the car, during her breathing treatments and in bed (or laying on the couch if she was sick).  That slowly went down to only at bed and nap.  She hasn't had a pacifier at daycare this entire year so I knew it was just a matter of time until we got rid of it permanently.

I had settled that when she turned three that would be the end of the pacifier.  Of course, she came down with croup and I just couldn't do it when she was sick.  Finally, we got her well and mentally prepared to take her to Build-A-Bear so that we could sew the pacifiers into an animal of her choice.  Wouldn't you know, the store was being remodeled and closed.  Ugh!

I found out recently that Build-A-Bear was reopened so we started mentally preparing Claire for another try.  We had an open house to go to on the other side of town near the mall where Build-A-Bear is located so I asked her Saturday morning if she wanted to go and give up her pacifier for good.  She was very excited about going so we seized the moment and headed to the mall after naps.

I was so proud of her, she did fantastic!!  She was thrilled to be there, she picked out a cat and headed to the stuffing station. She was a little shy, but pushed the pedal to fill the cat part-way full of stuffing.

Then came the big moment, with only a little bit of hesitation she put all the pacifiers into the kitty.  She was a little shy since the bear stuffer was a man - she's quite shy around men for some reason.  I was so glad that we had avoided the meltdown!

Then came the all important bath - really four baths and picking out the clothes.  Since Paci Kitty is essential at bedtime, she got a set of purple pajamas.  A couple bows later and we were on our way home.

I was a little nervous how the night would go.  However she did her breathing treatment without fuss and other than playing a little longer than normal since she had a stuffed animal in bed she went to sleep without any whining.  

On Sunday, the little stinker found another pacifier that did not make it in Paci Kitty.  She said that she needed her kitty to snuggle with and the other pacifier to have in her mouth.  Ryan was quick on his feet and suggested that we wrap it up for babies that don't need pacifiers and really need them.  She agreed and we put the stray pacifier in a box and wrapped it up.  Of course, she wants to come with me to drop it off to the babies in need - looks like I need to set something up at the church nursery.

I am so proud of her!  I can't believe how big my girl is getting!!