That Friggen Paci Fairy!

Ugh where do I begin? So Nicoletta uses a Paci only when she was in the car or going to sleep. We decided that after Disney it was time to take it away. We started off slow and took it from her while she was in the car at Disney. The first morning we tried we wound up giving it to her just so she wasn't a pill all day at the park but by later that afternoon she was fine or just too exhausted to care :-). The preference to this story I should say is that at school when she moved in the "twos room" they just never offered her the Paci during nap time, she never asked for it and still takes naps like a champ there so we knew she could do it. Okay so back to the story, we come home and decide Monday night is D day no more paci. Grandma was over and whenever she's here Nicoletta chooses to have her put her to sleep (she knows Grandma is a sucker and will rock her to sleep). So off they go with no paci, I explain to Nicoletta that she's a big girl now and that she doesn't need it. She moans for awhile but my mom said it seemed like she was settling down, then she was quiet and much to my Mom's surprise that little sneak found a paci (or perhaps found her stash) inside the pillow case of her pillow!! Okay so abort the mission there's no way we're getting that thing out of her mouth we decide to try again later.

After some discussions, and advise from friends, John and I come up with a plan. We'll wait until Friday night so if she's up all night we'll at least get to take a nap instead of having to go to work all day. So we come up with a story and a plan which goes something like this.....

We prep her all week by telling her that Cinderella and the other princesses said SHE could be a princess too but she has to give up the paci because princesses don't use paci's. With that, the Paci Fairy is going to come to take her paci but she's going to leave her a really great present! Nicoletta had no problem letting us know that she hoped the paci fairy would leave her a sandbox and shovel. So each day ticks by, we ask her if she knows what's going to happen and she fully regurgitates this story back to us and continues to tell us "the princesses said no paci". So Friday night rolls around, she goes to bed with her Paci and before we go to sleep we sneak in there to take it away and sprinkle "fairy dust" leading her from her bed out to the hallway where her special gift is waiting.

Sure enough 6am Saturday morning we hear her half asleep saying "where's my paci, I can't find my paci", then silence followed by "MAMA COME LOOK AT THIS!!" she had spotted the fairy dust!







Enjoying her "special present" with Papa and Grandma!




THE AFTERMATH.....
Nap #1: Took me over an hour to get her to sleep. She only asked for the "P" twice but just couldn't settle herself down combined with the fact that she was completely overtired.

Bedtime #1: Took me an hour and 20 minutes and ended with her crying herself to sleep for 20 minutes.

Nap #2: I was in her room for 20 minutes, she cried for 14 minutes after I walked out and then she was sound asleep.

Bedtime #2 Tonight: (Done by Grandma) my mom was up there for about 20 minutes. Like I said she's a sucker and rocks her to sleep and she also has a REALLY hard time walking out of her room if she's crying, I'm not sure she's ever done it. So there up there Nicoletta falls asleep in her arms but the second she put her down she started crying and reaching out for "Gandma!!" So of course my Mother picked her back up and tried the process again but it ended the same way with her crying. Katie mustered up the courage and walked out of the room. By the time she walked downstairs, paced the first floor once and had me threaten her life if she thought about walking up those stairs again (so all in all about 60 seconds) Nicoletta was ASLEEP!!!

Here's hoping it stays like that or eventually we loose the crying bit!!