Who'd have thought

In July, some of you will recall, we decided that it was about time that Sophia should not be using soothers anymore, so we progressively removed her soothers from the bedtime routine. She was down to two at the cottage, and we went to the store and she traded the soothers for a new stuffed toy. Our hope was that she would "connect" to the new toy and it would be her special toy that would replace the soothers as the thing that would help her get to sleep, i.e. her "comfort item".

Her new stuffed toy did not become her comfort item, and since we took her soothers away, we have been having difficulty getting her to go to sleep by herself. One of us must stay in the room for a few minutes and pat her back, otherwise she gets aggravated and starts to cry. So we are weaning her off of the "pat my back" thing bit by bit as well - she'll now let me leave before she is asleep, but only some times and only if she is in a good mood.

None of her existing stuffed animals seems to fit the bill of a comfort item. We have borrowed legacy stuffed animals from the Gerhard grandparents, and she likes them well enough but the don't serve the purpose. We brought a nice fuzz blanket into her room with tags to feel and chew and fiddle with, but still no firm attachment.

Well. A couple days ago, she started to latch on to a particular toy, taking it with her from place to place, cuddling it, and going to bed with it in her arms. Not a stuffed animal, not a blanket, but a rubber ducky.


Waiting at the doctor's office


Chewing on the bill, a favorite...


Peaceful and comforted.



It can't really be all that comfortable (can it?), and she has woken up more than once with a bright red bill or tail mark deep in her forehead, but it seems to work. It probably won't last, she'll probably give it up for something else soon, but for now at least she has a comfort item.