The pacifier

Last Friday I set out for a ME weekend, a whole weekend in Berlin with only myself and one of the absolute best friends that a person can have. Berlin deserves its own post, now on to what happend the weekend when I was not around. Friday night Hendrik informed me that he had decided not to give the pacifier to Sophia anymore, no matter what. Of course the pacifier has been discussed at length for months, its a blessing and a curse and we have been well aware of the fact that we should get rid of it. I can admit that for me the pacifier has been a tool to calm Sophia down, make her stop crying, continue sleeping, shutting up etc. The reluctance from my side to stop giving it to her has been 'well, how will she fall back to sleep then, when she wakes up in the middle of the night' and 'how will we solve tricky public situations without it' etc. so, purely selfish reasons, altough its not like Sophia minded the pacifier, of  course not, many times she stated that she 'LOVES THE TUTT'. I strongly believe in preparation for what is to come, i.e. normally I would have told Sophia like a week in advance that on Friday we will throw away all her pacifiers, now there had been no preparation whatsoever, so not only did mamma go away but also suddenly she was faced with a life without her beloved pacifier. From a distance I started feeling so sorry for my little girl, but at the same time I was curious to see how it would go, especially the night. Well, Sophia slept through the first night, no problems, although all of Saturday was apparently a nightmare both for father and daugther. Night number two also went by without Sophia waking up and she woke up Sunday morning in an excellent mood. The two had a lovely Sunday together where the pacifier was hardly mentioned. I came home Sunday night and thought 'oh, well now the spell is broken, Sophia will surely wake up tonight and ask for the damn thing', but no, she slept through the night again. Monday morning when Sophia sees me for the first time since Thursday night she is happy BUT asks almost immediately for the pacifier, naturally there is some crying when she realizes that I too, will not give it to her, but she calms down and we move on. Next big test was how Sophia would be able to nap at the daycare without the pacifier, that too was no problem, she fell asleep faster than she usually does.When I picked her up later that same afternoon she also asked for it, but just to test me, just a quick little, 'tutten?', and then acceptance. We are now on day six without the pacifier and its safe to say that whatever happens we will stick to our plan, no more pacifier. She is having major withdrawal syndromes, they appear to be tantrums but are worse than tantrums, but these too will pass I am sure. I am very happy about the fact that it was Hendrik who initiated this strategic move, so thank you, thank you for that! Of course now I find pacifiers in all sorts of places, snapping them before Sophia spots them :-) An era is over, my baby is not a baby anymore, but a determined and strong minded little girl. The next strategic move will be stop with the diapers.