yep...a week ago, i pulled the plug. (pacifier or binky if you prefer. no, thank heavens i didn't have to pull life support. i don't think i could blog about that.) I was going to wait until the day after christmas, but i got sick enough of the constant drool coming from my daughter's mouth. and i figured since she got new toys for her birthday, that should keep her entertained. So i took it away except for naptime and bedtime. it was really sad the first time i took it out of her mouth. she had a look of betrayal in her eyes. but now she will put it in the basket or give it to me without any problems. candy was a great distraction. and still is for that matter. when i weaned her from the breast i used chips. they haven't worked as well as the candy this time. though the first time i changed mallory's poopy diaper without the plug (she would throw fits when her stinky diapers gets changed even when she had the plug), doug gave her a potato chip and that calmed her for awhile.
yes we are brushing her teeth. at least twice a day. you should see her spit into the sink. i need to get a video of her doing it.
the second day after the law had been laid down, she told me she was going to look for her plug after she asked me for it and I explained the new rules. I then asked her if she wanted some candy. she then had some candy and then went on playing. a while later, she wanted some more candy. I told her no and that she had had enough candy (yes, there are some limits to the extent i bribe my child). She got a gleam in her eye, and told me she was going to go look for her plug and walked in the same direction that she had before, while looking back at me to as if to say, do i get candy when i ask for my plug? this worked before. I held firm. she broke into tears, and i still held firm. I can hold firm when i can tell i am being manipulated. she stopped crying eventually :) (no, I think she got tickled unmercilessly and she stopped and we laughed over her silliness)
though it seems now that she has had more accidents without the plug...she fell off a chair and hit the table, then the chair, and finally the floor. i learned then that bumps on the head are not just an exaggeration of cartoons. then she stepped on my quilting frame that has nails poking up so you can put fabric on it. had a very deep wound with that one and then freaked out when i put antibiotic ointment and a band aid over it. she wouldn't walk for the rest of the night. she fell and scraped her knee on the pavement. she fell off a box and bonked her head on the concrete floor in the basement.
she sort of relapsed yesterday, with church on sunday, (she had to make it through nursery, wasn't going to hoist her on the nursery leaders without the plug) and she and isaac got shots yesterday, she had "extended" naptime and bedtime hours. hopefully, she will be ok with just nap and bedtimes, otherwise, by next week, i might take it away at those times as well. though the dentist might be a little upset if we give her candy all night long ;)
i was hoping to go until she was three with her plug at naps/bedtime, but if she wants it all the time, it is better that she just forgets all about the plug. if she can. especially with a little brother who is using one. maybe we will have a family plug pulling, and take off isaac as well...let him figure out how to use his fingers. uh huh. any bets as to when she goes back to the plug full time?
No comments:
Post a Comment