The past couple of days have brought on a change that was a long time coming. That change was the loss of William’s choochie. When I say loss, in this case it really is lost, not just put away. It disappeared on Christmas Day morning and has not been seen since. At this point it has been two and a half days and while that may seem like no time at all, to a child it is forever. 🙁 Having said that, it really was time to get rid of William’s long time companion and security blanket, but it was and is certainly not easy. There is a lot of controversy over kids using soothers, dummies, choochies, nummies and what ever else you want to call it. When Emily was born she had one, but I took it away when she was mere months old and had no plans to let William have one for any length of time. But things happened that changed that plan..
Back to the choochie. It has been with William ( not the same one though, that would be unsanitary) for several years and yes we have tried to wean him off of it many times. Like any habit that is hard to break, giving up a beloved “chooch” has been difficult and not just for William. The first day it was gone it was not too bad, but he had the distraction of presents, cousins and more presents to occupy his mind. We spent the latter half of Christmas Day at my in-laws place and on the way home William fell asleep. He normally has it at bedtime so falling back to sleep once we got home was not really an issue. The next day, Boxing Day, was the test. He asked for it on and off through out the day and seemed a bit put out with our reply of “it’s lost, you have to look for it”, but it wasn’t too bad. Then bedtime came. I lay down with William at bedtime ( another thing for people to fret about, but I love this time with my boy) and on this, the second night without his beloved choochie, William was not happy. For several hours he tossed and turned, alternating between trying to fall asleep and crying for his friend. To say my heart broke more than once is an understatement. 🙁 It was like watching a drug addict go through withdrawal from a cocaine addiction. Painful. I tried to sing to him, tell him a story, read, but he wanted none of that. At one point I said my usual, ” I love you to the moon, the stars and back again”. Normally William replies with his cute little sayings, but this time he said, ” I don’t feel like sharing my love” 🙁 My poor, little man…
William eventually fell asleep, but woke through out the night. I kept him with me, to cuddle close and soothe him when he woke. I felt guilty for keeping him from his choochie. Let’s face it, I could have bought a replacement fairly easily, but I knew in my heart it was time for him to let go. Today has been better for him, apparently. I was at work all day, but since arriving home in the evening William has yet to ask for “chooch”. I am pretty sure bedtime tonight will be challenging, but we must stick with our guns on this one. Time for the security choochie to be retired and for William to accept that it is gone. I guess first I must except that it is gone and that maybe with it, the little baby boy I cuddle with every night, to be replaced with this young “big boy”…
FT&PD
Suz
Well happy to see it all worked out for you and William,we all have something that makes up feel security
I like how you handled the issue with your daughter when she was young enough not to realize it was she was missing something and that way they don’t get attached as much. When it came time for the bottle to go my mother gave everyone in our family this advice. Buy a glass bottle and when it’s time for the usual bottle at night or whenever they get the bottle, right in front of them drop it and when it breaks your can honestly say it broke and so no more bottle or for a soother hide and have the child look for it. Once it’s broken or lost they find it much easier to get over it. It worked for all 4 of my mothers kids and the tradition has carried on. I just have one foot note; when you go to break the bottle do it hard enough so it breaks because I had to keep trying until I did it hard enough which took a couple days because I couldn’t stand there and just keep slamming it on the floor. Lol