What a dummy - not as in stupid - but that thing that Lizzy seemed to have permanently stuck in her mouth at night. What a dummy it was - it was loved, cherished and craved, but now it is gone.
We tried many different tactics to get rid of the thing. First of all we tried cold turkey. That was hellish for us and Lizzy. After about 2 months of screaming for 2 plus hours every night, plus multiple night wakings and a cranky girl during the day, we relented and gave it back. (I think she might be a little stubborn...don't you?) Then we tried bribing. (We'll have a goodbye dummy party if you sleep without your dummy). We tried having the dentist tell her it wasn't good for her.
Before coming to Australia, we had our best compromise, where we'd let her fall asleep with it but take it out after about an hour. But it still had to go.
When we came home from Australia, we decided it was time. We suggested that we leave the dummy out for the dummy fairy. The problem was the fairy kept on coming each night and putting it back in her mouth.
Finally, I wrote a book for Lizzy. It showed pictures of her as a baby, and then growing up. Each picture had her using her dummy. Then there was a picture of her going to preschool without a dummy, until finally there was a picture of her sleeping without her dummy (snapped during our compromise time).
At the end, I said to her "Do you want to be a big girl tonight, and go to sleep without your dummy".
"Yes" she replied. I had my doubts that it would be like the fairy but she fell asleep without a problem. We read the book for the next few nights, and each night she choose to sleep without the dummy. We've now been dummy free for over a week - so I'm confident it's gone for good.
Yippee! Hopefully we've just saved our selves thousands on orthodist bills later in life :)
1 comment:
A big step in the life of any small child. I know, while Jesse was easy - one day we couldn't find it and he fell asleep while we were looking for it and never needed it again- Emmy was harder. We got her a special dummy present ("Crush" the stuffed turtle from "Nemo") and ceremoniously chucked said dummy in the bin. Em slept fine however for months afterwards she would wake in the morning with a terribly sad look on her face and say forlornly "but a girl just can't live without her dummy". When we tried to convince her that she had in fact, for some months, been living - and sleeping - without it she would tell us that - as a matter of fact she had not slept a wink since the dummy went in the bin and had been lying wide awake all night every night since. We sympathised sadly with her and giggled violently with each other when her back was turned. To this day every now and then, when Em is whinging about something, someone (usually Jon) pipes up with "but a girl just can't live without her dummy".
Well done big girl Lizzy - we are proud of you - and of big school boy Isaac too.
Love Walshies
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