No pacifier for you

The morning started out at about 5:30 a.m. when I heard my almost 2-year-old playing in her crib. While her daddy was showering around 6:15 a.m. I still heard her. Note: lately she's been sleeping until 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. and will play in her bed for a while before needing attention. I went in and rocked her for a few minutes and put her back down to sleep. Whether she did or not, I don't know. Then I got to thinking -- she's going to be really tired today, maybe it would be a good day to get rid of the pacifier. She's only used it at night for a long time now. She just needed it so much with moving, teething and just for comfort. But now things have evened out. We are home all week so we can adjust, she's not sick, and whether I take it away today or in three weeks she's going to have to grieve. And that's what she did for two hours while we tried to nap this afternoon. I tried to let her cry it out and I rocked her. We went back and forth on that for the whole time. I found a note that Elmo left us saying he came and took the pacifiers for the new babies. She seemed to grasp that idea and we through the tears we talked about all the things she can do as a big girl. She was just so sad and it really has to be tough for her. After we got back up, we made a big girl snack and she helped. And we just kept talking about all the big girl things she can do. Every now and then I would hear her say "pacifiers all gone." We talked about it with Daddy when he came home. Tonight she was wiped out. I read stories before bedtime and I rocked her for about a half hour until she fell asleep. We might need to go backwards a little and rock again for a little while until she can figure out how to fall asleep without sucking on her pacifier. But every day should be better. Hopefully, she sleeps through the night.