Un-pacified

Emme has officially made it one week without her pacifier. After her surgery, I switched her from her regular pacifier to a newborn, gumdrop type.  She didn't like it as much, but it did the job more or less and was a kind of step down toward having none at all.  She's only used the pacifier when going to sleep for probably 6 months or more, so I knew this wasn't going to be too bad.  But having not gone through it without Oliver, I had no idea what it would be like.

Then last Sunday, after Wes and I came back from Chicago, I decided to just go for it.  I put Emme down in her crib and left.  I let her cry for five minutes (seriously -- I set a kitchen time).  I went up and rocked her, and she calmed down and asked to lie down again.  She cried for another ten minutes before I went up again.  As soon as I tried to rock her, she asked to lie down.  And then I realized she just didn't want me to leave.  I literally sat in a chair next to her crib while she fell asleep.  She moved her Baa so she could see me as she fell asleep.

The next night she cried for two minutes and then went to sleep without me doing anything.  The next night was maybe one minute.  I've maybe gone in once or twice for a nap or bedtime, but overall it's gone really well.  Yesterday, I don't think she cried at all.  Sometimes I'll rock her just so she'll ask to be put in her crib, just to make it easier.

I'm glad we used the pacifier with her.  It made a really big difference in her fussiness early on and her sleep later.  Even two weeks ago I used the pacifier in the morning of her surgery, when she couldn't eat or drink for a long time.  I don't think she ever got super attached to it, though it was clearly part of her sleep routine.

There are still pacifiers around the house.  I'll wait a month or more before I finally throw them out.  There are still vestiges of a baby around my house, but this is yet another that is disappearing.

See no evil

Oliver is clearly getting smarter each day.  A few weeks ago, soon after we had our roof replaced, Oliver was playing "roof mans" in the living room.  He kept climbing on top of his workbench, which is not secured to the wall, so that he could hammer on the top piece.  I'd told him several times not to climb up there, as I was worried the whole things was going to fall over.  As per usual, Oliver assured me would not fall over.

Eventually, I told him that if I saw him up on the workbench again, I would move it out of the living room.  Oliver paused, thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mom, don't come in the living room."  

Like brother

For Emme's second birthday

Round three

Keeping busy before going back.
She couldn't eat or drink in the morning!

Her special scrubs

Dr. Daddy in the waiting room

On the way home with her big cast.
She had taken it off by Friday!

Smarty pants

Upon turning into my parents' neighborhood: "Look, mommy.  There's the white fence.  That's how we know we're in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood.  I'm smart.  Isn't I?"

Dress for success