Bye Bye, Baba!

We said "Bye Bye!" To Lily Belle's Baba's this weekend. It had been a decision Den and I debated about for months. We have always had a hard time with sleep and LB, as most of you know, so taking away her pacifier at nap and night time filled me with dread. But we spent weeks preparing her; talking about babas being for babies and how she was a big girl now. We spoke about how Baby Nate needed babas and "wouldn't it be so nice of you if you gave him yours?" (This is a bit of a running joke between me and my good friend, Alexis, since Baby Nate doesn't take a baba and doesn't really sleep all that great either!) 

We started Friday night and though there was some confusion and a few tears she went to sleep just fine. I laid with her and talked about why the babas were gone. Things went very smoothly. That night was rough, though she didn't ask for her baba, she was clearly upset and having a hard time sleeping. She woke up at least every 2 hours. Her 11pm meds were the worst because again, though she didn't ask for it, she snuffled and cried (but tried her hardest not to!) and it just broke my heart. But I held strong! And every time she woke up I went in and tried to comfort her as best I could. 

Nap time on Saturday was okay. She was clearly tired from the night before but only ended up sleeping for an hour and woke up crying :-( 

Saturday we changed our tactics because Lily didn't really seem to care that baby Nate or any baby needed her babas. So we introduced the idea of a "Baba Fairy!" That seemed to perk LB up a bit and the idea of having a fairy come and give her presents "Like santa" filled her with joy. We wanted to reward her anyways for being so brave and becoming a big girl. This is a big step! Night time went a bit better, though still up a lot, and nap, again was only an hour. 

When she woke from her nap the Baba Fairy did indeed visit and left a card a much-wanted Rapuzel doll :) And though last night wasn't back to great sleep, she (and we, as parents) lasted all weekend without a baba! I'm hoping the schedule and activity from school will tire her out enough today to take a better nap and get back into a good sleep cycle. Fingers crossed!

"We're nerdy but we came up with a poem for the card as a keep sake!
"Baba's are for babies
You know this to be true
So all the babies you have helped
Want to say a big "Thank you!"

You did your very best.
You are a big girl now.
All you had to do was TRY.
Mom and Dad are so proud!"

And we ended the weekend with, what else?- Tangled!