Goodbye, Soother
I’ve never been a fan of the soother… Id say this goes back to my childcare training when I worked in a wobbler room.
Once those babies turned one it was goodbye soother… (and bottle for that matter)… it was our job to encourage child development and according to HSE preschool regulations when a wobbler is awake and stimulated the soother should be put away in a little pot or the child’s bag… all sounds great on paper ,eh….
When I was pregnant I was still steadfast on no soother… one yummy daddy thought we should get some (just in case) when we were out baby shopping and talked me into to picking up a pack… I laughed and said you know we won’t be needing these… and stored them away with all the other stuff I told him we wouldn’t need - like the car seat belt clip (life saver), activity gym (game changer) and formula dispenser (god send)
Our newborn was home for three days and to be honest she was a dream.. she slept well, fed well and I was walking on air… after the 3rd day she started to get a bit grizzly.. that cry pierces straight through your ears heart when you hear it, you just want to make it stop. (not because of the noise, well kinda not) because you want to make it all better … “Daddy where are those soothers?” and that was that… she was hooked…
Fast forward 3 years later and the soother is now my nemesis… she just loves it… she talks to it, plays with it, she has her own name for it — her ‘google ga’ — she would pick it over me hands down.
She would pick it over Kinder eggs hands down. I’m forever hiding it, telling her no google ga when playing .. google ga’s are just for bed… but she hunts them down no matter where I hide them, and will walk into the room all “Maggie Simpson” and look at me like “Mam, honestly what’s your problem”
A few strangers also have started to get their 2 cents in now too. You know when you’re stressed out, doing the food shop and the toddler is not co-operating .. you get to the till and a nosy old dear will say to her ” you’re not a baby, you don’t need a dummy”
You try taking it off her.. see how easy it is!!!
Then the dentist … she told me that because she’s sucking the soother so hard there could be a chance her teeth will grow around it and casually dropped in “there’s need for it once they turn 3”.. so that was it…. I decided it had to go (stay strong.. deep breaths) 🙂
My first idea was that Santa might take it and leave loads of toys instead. I even got a cute plate to leave it on for
santy… but then I had visions of ruining Christmas with tears and tantrums on Xmas eve (that might get in the way of my relaxing glass of wine ) so then I planted the seed and mentioned a few times that we should give the google ga to the fairies and let them give them to the babies that need them…. At first, she wasn’t having a bar of it, so I added that the fairies will get her a present for being so brave… oh she’s interested now!!!!
So on Sunday we headed off to the fairy park in Corkagh park and posted the google ga in the fairy post box (thankfully there was no tears and no fuss)… in return she got a present (a Ben and Holly set), .. last night she went to bed with no hiccups… but woke up very upset in the middle of the night. she said there was a monster in her room ( I knew it was the google ga she wanted) she asked to sleep in with me.. and she did… she slept most of the night in-between having a rummage now and then around the bed half asleep looking for it.. (this pulled at the old heart strings) so I snuggled her in with extra hugs and she hugged me even tighter back…
Our mission isn’t exactly accomplished just yet.. but battle day and night one is complete… I’ll keep you posted on how we get on in the coming weeks x
Are any of you guys in the same boat? or how did you say goodbye to the soother… I’d love to hear your stories…
By Jolene Cox
Originally published at oneyummymummy.com on November 7, 2016.
