No More Dummies!

I have been thinking about loosing Fräulein's pacifiers for quite some time. You might remember, how I asked your opinion about it one year ago. She was only using them when sleeping, but I did not have the energy nor the strength to take them away.

Pacifiers are not good for a child's teeth and might affect the occlusion. In Finland, it is recommended that when a child is one year old, she should use a pacifier only when sleeping. And when the child turns two years old, the pacifiers should go for good. I'm not sure if there are any recommendations here in Germany regarding the pacifiers, but I often see four-year-olds using one...

After Fräulein turned two, the birth of her little sister came closer. As the pacifiers where very comforting for Fräulein, I thought it would not be the best time for something that felt so radical.

This January, when my mother was visiting us, we finally decided to get rid of the pacifiers. Fräulein packed all her dummies to a plastic bag and we took the bag to our front door so that a cat could pick them up and take them to her kittens.

A half an hour later we went back downstairs and found out that the cat had taken the dummies and left Little My from the Moomins as a present for Fräulein! What a coincidence that Little My is Fräulein's favorite character. ;)

Both German and Finnish children's culture present:
Kikaninchen and Little My

Sleeping without the pacifier went relatively smoothly. Fräulein asked for them a couple of times, but when she was reminded that the cat had taken them and given her the Little My, she was happy with it.

The following Monday I told to her Krippe teachers that we had lost the pacifiers, but I guess there was some kind of miscommunication, because a few days later I noticed she had used a pacifier while taking her nap.

Before our trip to Finland, I talked with the Krippe teachers again and we agreed that the pacifier would get lost during our three week holiday. So, yesterday was the first day she took her nap in the Krippe without the pacifier. Yay!

No more dummies for Fräulein!

Silent Sunday
August 19, 2012

*****
Vähän myöhässä suomalaisista suosituksissa hankkiuduimme vihdoin tammikuussa eroon Fräuleinin tuteista. Veimme ne muovipussissa ulko-ovelle, mistä kissa kävi hakemassa ne poikasilleen. Vastalahjaksi kissa oli jättänyt Pikku Myy -pehmolelun!

Nukkuminen ilman tuttia sujui yllättävän helposti. Mutta kielimuurin takia en onnistunut selittämään päiväkodin työntekijöille tilannetta, joten tutti oli käytössä vielä päiväkotipäikkäreiden aikana. Nyt Suomi-loman aikana tuokin tutti oli "mennyt hukkaan", joten nyt tässä huushollissa on tutti vain vauvalla!

Question For All Mothers Out There: Bed Or Pacifier?

It hasn't been the best possible start for the year. First Fräulein had an eye infection and I got fever. Last week all three of us caught a stomach bug. And yesterday Fräulein had fever and a running nose.

Yesterday Fräulein was glued to my lap.

She doesn't usually use pacifier when she is awake, but being ill is an exception.

As Fräulein is not totally well yet, this is not a matter of today, but something that I have been thinking for a while. I gave you earlier a peek into our bedroom, so you know that Fräulein is currently sleeping in the same room as Herr Welle and me. As she is quite light sleeper, her sleep seems to be disturbed when we go to bed a couple of hours after her and again when Herr Welle leaves to work in the morning.

This is why we have thought that we could change our guest room into nursery. I believe that all three of us would sleep better, if Fräulein had a room of her own.

The problem is her pacifier. She still uses one while sleeping and the most common reason for her to wake up during the night and start crying, is that she has lost her pacifier. Now that she is sleeping very close to us, it is easy for me to reach for the pacifier and place it back into her mouth - this happens about once or twice every night. But it would be very disturbing for my sleep, if I had to get up and walk into another room to do this. Not to mention, that - as it would take more time - Fräulein would probably get more upset and more awake, and it would require more than the pacifier to calm her down again.

So, I have been thinking that maybe we should get her to abandon the pacifier before making the changes in the sleeping arrangements. I have heard that many children have started to sleep all through the night after they have stopped using a pacifier.

On the other hand, it is so easy to calm her and get her to fall asleep with the pacifier that I would like to keep this option for a while.

So, my question is:

What do you think we should do first: move Fräulein's bed or get rid of the pacifiers?

I would really appreciate, if you could share your recommendations about how to go forward!

And please tell me any tips you might have for how to get a child to fall asleep without a pacifier, when she has used one all her life.

Or do you have any experiences about moving child to sleep in his/her own room?

Kerrothan kokemuksesi vaikka suomeksi! Ich freue auch Antworten auf Deutsch! Jag förstår också svenska!