The Death of the Nuh-nuh!

Chris and I have been deliberating over how to get rid of Leah’s pacifier (which she calls a “nuh-nuh”) for awhile now. He was all for it, but I was more hesitant. Chris’ idea was just take it away; cold turkey is what he called it. I was more compassionate and my response was, “but she loves her nuh-nuh!” Plus, I knew I’d get the brunt of the tears and sleeplessness when the end of the pacifier came.At Isaiah’s birthday party, I got some pointers from the other moms who had overcome this hurdle in their children’s lives. One of my friends had a clever, somewhat sneaky method. She invented the Nuh-Nuh Fairy, who functioned much like the tooth fairy. Her son, like most little boys, was into Thomas trains. So they told him that one night the Nuh-Nuh fairy would come and turn his Nuh-Nuh into a Thomas train! When the magical night arrived, the Nuh-Nuh fairy left a blue Gordon train under the pillow to replace the blue nuh-nuh. Problem solved!

I didn’t think Leah would fall for that idea, but another mom had a completely different solution. She said they had snipped the smallest bit off the tip of each nuh-nuh. When bedtime came, their little girl tried each one and discovered that they were all malfunctioning. As time went by, the plan was to cut a little more off each day, until it eventually was useless. I don’t know that they ever had to take it that far, because their daughter decided pacifiers weren’t worth it anymore. I liked this second idea, because it caused the child to make the decision on their own to be done with pacifiers. In theory.

So today was the day we set for the beginning of the end of the nuh-nuh. I snipped a tiny bit off the tip of each of Leah’s nuh-nuhs. We got her all ready for her nap and breathlessly watched as she popped the pacifier in her mouth. We waited for a reaction. Nothing. She didn’t even seem to notice! I couldn’t decide if I should be elated that there wasn’t going to be a battle or dejected because the plan wasn’t working.

As the afternoon went on, Leah didn’t fall asleep. She called me into her room, crying about everything from poopy pants to wanting socks on. But she didn’t say a word about the nuh-nuh. I didn’t think she even realized why she couldn’t sleep, until the last time I went in there and she said, “Nuh-nuh broken.” I asked her what she’d said, and she held it up to me to show me the offensively missing tip. I told her I was sorry and there was nothing I could do. She didn’t seem very upset and she didn’t seem to want the nuh-nuh much anymore. So maybe the problem is solved… but then, she hasn’t gone to sleep yet.