How we got our Toddler to Give up her Pacifier

I was not very proud of the fact that until recently, our 31/2 year old toddler still regularly used a pacifier. She was clearly addicted. She would wake up in the middle of the night because her pacifier had fallen out. She would suck on it between meals, and in fact was without her pacifier only when we removed it from her as punishment. We let her suck her pacifier mostly because the alternative was listening to her whining and begging for a pacifier...

Then an idea occurred to me. My husband and I had been talking about getting the girls bunk beds for some time. We had been eyeing a model from Ikea. It is a very low-lying bunk bed, so low that the lower mattress rests directly on the floor (so our 11/2 year old would not get injured falling off), and the upper bunk is not too high either.  We recently received an Ikea catalogue in the mail, and I showed our toddler the photo of the beds. I asked her if she wanted one. She replied "Yes!, I will sleep on top, and my sister can sleep on the bottom." I replied that it was a good idea, but that once we got the bunk bed, she would not be allowed a pacifier "because girls and boys that are old enough for a bunk bed are too old for a pacifier."  She thought it over, and decided that she still wanted a bunk bed...

And so it was that last week-end, I picked one up from our local Ikea, and my husband and I (but mostly my husband) put it together. Not only do both girls love their bunk beds, but our toddler has now gone almost a week without a pacifier. In fact, their first night in their bunk beds was the first night ever that they both slept through the night!

Final score: Parents 2-Kids 0!

Before: 2 side-by-side beds

After: space-saving bunk beds

Enjoying their bunks!