NO MORE PACIFIER

I have finally decided to fight the battle of taking McKenna's pacifier from her. She is 21 months old. Both her doctor and dentist recommend taking it from her by the time she is 2. So about a week and a half ago I decided we would start by not letting her have it unless she is sleeping. She did really well adjusting to this. She only asked for it a few times during the first 2 or 3 days and I was able to distract her each time. This week I decided to take it away completely. The first nap went pretty much as expected. She cried on and off for about an hour and then calmed down and went to sleep. It took her a total of 1 hour 15 minutes to fall asleep for nap on that first day. I was excited. Then at bedtime on the first day, she never cried or got out of her bed. It took her about 2 hours to fall asleep but she stayed in her bed and just talked and sang to herself during that time. Again, I was very excited. This wasn't going to be as hard as I thought. Then nap time on day 2 came. For 5 hours (no that is not a typo) she fought going to bed. She cried on and off. She would not stay in her bed. She would get up to play. She asked continually for the pacifier. I was not giving in. I was committed to this. After the 5 hour battle she finally fell asleep. She only slept for about 45 minutes. Bedtime for day 2 was much easier but I think she was just so exhausted from the very short nap that she didn't have the energy to fight. I was very concerned about nap time for day 3. She cried on and off for about 5 minutes. Then she calmed down and sang to herself in her bed. She fell asleep after about an hour. I am hoping that tonight (night 3) will be easy also. I was going to try to take some pictures of her sleeping without the pacifier but she is a very light sleeper and I really do not want to wake her up. I am very excited that she has reached this milestone. Each and every milestone that my kids reach are so exciting to me. I love being with them every day to see them grow up.