Lilly had a special visit from the Pacifier Fairy on Thursday night. After talking casually about it for a few days Lilly decided she was ready to leave her paci outside for the Pacifier Fairy to pick up and deliver to a young child who needs it. In return, the Pacifier Fairy left gifts for Lilly, including a coloring book, glitter crayons, Olivia DVD, Cinderella book, and sprinkled donut. We were caught off guard with how quickly Lilly (who seemingly had a strong emotional attachment to her paci, which was confined to her bedroom and visited frequently throughout the day if she got upset, etc) was sold on the idea and how enthusiastic she was about the process.

Thursday night, after leaving her pacifier in an envelope and placing it outside, she was extremely aggitated at bedtime and stalling every moment of her bedtime routine. She finally fell asleep at 10:30 after a small meltdown and woke up twice in the night briefly. She was happy as can be in the morning (helped by her first ever sprinkle donut), exhausted after school but wouldn’t take a nap, and fell asleep once her head hit the pillow at bedtime. Since then she had one major meltdown (bad enought that I called Bill home early from work) but has been sleeping well and refers to her paci very infrequently, about once a day. Our pediatrician recommended that we wait until she is 3 (just a few more weeks!) to wean her from the paci and after considering various approaches we decided to give this a try. We are very proud of how well she is doing!

Since deciding on this approach we heard of kids taking their pacifiers to Build a Bear Workshop and putting them inside a bear that they choose. I think this is a great idea (!!), although Lilly would surely rip the bear open to retrieve her paci. My parent’s are still laughing about L’s visit from the Pacifier Fairy, lol.

To read a time article about the Pacifier Fairy, click here.