Paci Replacement Therapy

Last Wednesday I decided to take the paci away. Chesley has always only had it in her crib, (and occasionally in her exersaucer when mama really wanted to be able to hear the TV while eating a meal!), so I hoped it would be easy. Well, it hasn't been a walk in the park. We went through several nights and naps of 30 minutes of crying but nothing was as bad as the first night when she cried so hard she made herself throw up...she had broccoli for dinner-it wasn't pleasant. But it's gotten almost back to normal thanks to her baby doll. Hillary and Pruet gave her a baby doll for her birthday and she LOVES it, (that would be the hot pink butt you see in the picture to Chesley's left). When I first took the paci away she wasn't attached to anything yet and I didn't know what she would like if anything but I figured this would be a good time for her to pick something that might help soothe her at night in lieu of the paci. So I arranged the baby doll, a frog my mom named George (and that mom slept with at our house in Memphis when she came to stay after we brought Chesley home), Poda the multi colored puffy bear from Emma Murphree, and a couple of lovies all in her crib. I didn't just toss them all in there and say goodnight, though. All the lovies I stuck through the bars on her crib so their heads were resting on the bumper pads and the 3 big ones (Poda, George, and Baby Doll) I each smooshed into a corner--Oh and she has one of those little blankets with a horse head that really looks more like a rug bc it will lay flat with the head sticking up (does that make sense?) from Percy's aunt. I draped it over the end of the crib on the top railing and I always drape her blanket over the side rail. Percy thought it was a bit much--and yes it was, even I knew this but I didn't plan to keep it up for more than a couple nights. I just wanted there to be stuff that might catch her attention while she screamed at us and distract her for a little while and maybe she would latch on to one for a little comfort during this torture her mean parents were inflicting on her. And it worked! She loves her Baby Doll and smiles and giggles when I give it to her at night. Almost all of the other stuff is out of the crib so she shouldn't smother in her sleep due to an avalanche of stuffed animals. But when Percy went in to get her up after the first morning of Operation Paci Replacement Therapy he was a it taken aback by the amount of stuff in her crib-bc she had pulled everything in with her. He felt the need to take a picture and I felt the need to post it! Bye Bye Paci!!