Goodbye Nippies!

Last week we got rid of the last remaining pieces of Charlotte's babyhood....her pacifier, also known as a nippy at our house. We had set the goal of getting rid of them many times, but each of those milestones came and went without ever kicking the habit. Let's reminisce for a moment (this is mostly for my sake...so skip over this if you are bored)...

Two and a half years ago we brought 8 pound 7 ounce Charlotte home from the hospital. She was cute, she was chubby, she was fussy. We were determined not to use a pacifier because it might interfere with breastfeeding, and we didn't want her to get into the habit of using a pacifier. We didn't want to be one of those families with a 2 and a half year old with a pacifier. Ahem... Anyway, our first night at home was a little rocky. Lots of crying (from all three of us), some pleading, too much breastfeeding, not enough sleep. I don't remember who suggested the pacifier first, but maybe it's better we can't play the blame game in retrospect. And who would want to place blame for the beautiful silence that followed when that little pacifier was popped in that little rosebud mouth. It was amazing. And there began the long series of compromises as parents that we always said "I'll never do that when I'm a parent..."

Fast forward a year or so...she's really not a baby anymore. We really should get rid of those. But hey, it's so darn convenient to get her to go to sleep. And besides, we only use it at naptime and bedtime. So it's not like she's walking around with it in her mouth. It helps her to self-soothe. Right.

Move ahead a bit more; a little bit older, a little bit wiser. We delay the old heave-ho for the nippies for various reasons at various times...we're going on vacation and need it for the plane ride...we're moving and that's a lot of stress for a little baby (who of course, is not actually a baby anymore)...we're stopping breastfeeding and she can't have everything taken away at once...etc etc. It just never seemed like a good time.

Meanwhile, Charlotte learned how to spell a few things; we couldn't sneak anything by her because as soon as you said N-I-P-P-Y she went running to her room to look for it. We had one unfortunate incident where she pulled her dresser over while trying to climb up and get her nippy from the top. Luckily she didn't get hurt, but the nippies found a new resting place.

Towards the end of the love affair with nippies, this was the routine---at bedtime Mama would hold her and Daddy would have two nippies. Charlotte would reach out in the dark for them, and sometimes Daddy would trick her by moving them out of her reach. Kids love to be teased, especially when they're tired. When she finally snagged them out of his hands, she would put one in her mouth with the handle flipped up and tucked under her nose. She would hold the other one in her hand, and at some point she would switch it for the other one. Her favorite was a white and red one, but the others got some use too. In the morning she would sometimes toddle out of her room with the nippies, but she was pretty good about putting them back on her pillow if you asked her. Sometimes if we forgot to put them up you might find her back in her bed in the middle of the day, eyes glazed over and half-closed having a little "nippy fix."

Now fast forward to a couple weeks ago. We had been talking about how to finally get rid of the nippies, and had settled on "sending" them to another baby who might need them. Charlotte is of course infatuated with her new cousin coming from Ethiopia, and thus one morning when we talked about the nippies she suggested baby E might need them because she is still a baby. "And what are you, Charlotte?" Mama asked. "I'm a big girl!" she said. So we put the nippies in a box, wrapped it up in brown paper, and addressed it. Charlotte insisted that she had to put it in the mailbox herself and then we said "Goodbye nippies!" With a slam of the mailbox door, that was that. End of an era. Done.

Ten minutes later I snuck back outside to rescue them. What if this was a terrible idea and she (or we?) couldn't handle this yet? I stashed the box where she couldn't find it, just in case.

Naptime that day brought some tears, but she settled down after 5 minutes or so. At bedtime she asked "Where's my nippies?" We reminded her that they were on their way to baby E. Into bed she went, without a fuss. The next day, same question, same response. Could it really be this easy? For days we waited for the tantrums and the screaming and the pleading, but it never came. She's stopped asking about them, and she's doing great. Our little girl is all grown up. Goodbye nippies!