The End of the Baby Era

We talked about how we were going to get rid of Elsie's pacifier for months now.  In fact, back in September I bought her two gifts for her for the day she chose to give up her paci and be a big girl.  It never happened.  I was told to just take it away, have the paci fairy come get it, send it away to a "new baby", etc but we just never could do it.  Like most stages in Elsie's life things just kind of happened.  We never really forced much on her, she just kind of moved on to the next step at her own pace.  I guess the best example of this that I can think of was potty training.  It just kind of happened.  We never fought with her about it and we never rewarded her.  She just showed interest and we hopped on board (there of course were some challenges along the way for sure but it was more like a change in routine).  So I was kind of hoping that giving up the paci would happen the same way-she would just decide she didn't want it-ha!  such wishful thinking.  I just dreaded upsetting her and taking away something that gave her so much comfort.

But it did just kind of happen on its own. It was a wednesday night (10/29).  About 30 minutes after putting Elsie to bed I heard the worst cry and screaming that I ever have.  I sprinted up the stairs, into her room to her crying "I broke my paci".  I'm not going to lie...I panicked!  haha Elsie and I had a really rough day and really needed a peaceful night and was not prepared to deal with her no longer having a paci.  I got her calmed down, she had a little drink, we read a couple of stories and sang a couple songs and she ended up falling back to sleep.  I am so happy that this was her doing, not ours :).  She really seemed to accept that she was the one to break it which means she can't have one anymore.

She actually bit her paci and tore it.  This actually scares me-how easily could she have bit it off completely and choked!  

We had a few struggles over the next few nights/mornings.  She did okay going to bed.  She would ask for it but then once we reminded her she broke it she would accept it and lay down.  The most challenging part was in the mornings.  She would wake up early (6:00 AM) and struggle to fall back to sleep without the comfort of her paci.  The first morning we made sure the "paci fairy" still came and took away the broken paci and she received her Seashell Palace Pet.

The first morning-so excited for her palace pet-she sleeps with this now every night for the past two weeks.  

I also want to add this happened just a few days before daylight savings which totally messed things up.  She wanted to get up at 5AM vs 6AM.  Oh well...we made it work.  

Now that her paci was gone we decided it was time to get rid of the crib.  Up until this point Elsie had no desire to leave the comfort and safety of her crib.  She has yet to even try climbing out.  When asked if she wanted a big girl bed the answer was always no.  Which was okay because until she gave up the paci I didn't want to deal with that when she could climb out of bed on her own will.  Once she had no paci we made a huge deal of how this meant she was a big girl now and she ended up being so excited about getting a bed.  That Saturday Elsie and I were at target and she picked out some bedding.  She was really excited about it.  A couple of months ago we bought a daybed frame off of a Facebook swap page but we yet to get a mattress so on Sunday we set out to buy one.  That night she was snuggled into her big girl bed.  Oh another thing I want to note is that up until we put the sheets and blankets on her bed she wanted nothing to do with climbing under the sheets/blankets.  In our bed she always wanted to lay on top with just her small fleece baby blanket on top.  John and I were actually curious to see how this would play out when we made up her bed with sheets and blankets.  We were shocked when she climbed right under the covers with no hesitation.  

So how are things going two weeks later-WONDERFUL!  She has yet to get out of her bed for any reason without us coming to get her.  The first five nights sleeping in her bed were the best five nights of uninterrupted sleep we have gotten since she was born!  We had a few rough nights last weekend but that was because she was sick and she is back to sleeping from 8:00PM - 6:00PM.  She doesn't even really wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night anymore.  I even was able to crawl into her bed last night and just lay with her for awhile and she didn't even wake up.  And now that we picked out bedding we can start transforming her room into her "Big Girl Room".  We hadn't really done anything in her room since we moved in because we were waiting for this to happen.  

Another side note, we got rid of the glider in her room.  Now that we can snuggle together on her bed and read we dont' need it in her room anymore and moved it to our room to use when the new baby comes.  By getting rid of the glider it made room for this: 

Her own little 3ft Christmas tree.  This sits in one of the dormers.  Once Christmas is over and things are settled down John plans to create a little reading nook here with a built in bench.  I can't wait!

So yes, it is a bit bittersweet.  This really truly is the end of all things that are baby related with Elsie.  But I suppose that is just part of it all.  It is exciting to me to see her grow, mature, and move on to new things and to see her excitement in doing so.  She is so proud of how she is a big girl now and this brings me so much joy.  

And we had one more surprise for her as a reward for sleeping so well in her big bed for a week straight-Pumpkin Cinderella's pet puppy :). She also sleeps with this now and just treasures her.