He even tried on the cool glasses the hygienist gave him to use. But they didn't stay on too long.
The dentist was really nice. Cooper was such a good boy. He even let him looked in his mouth with a little mirror. The dentist said Cooper had nice teeth but his front teeth were not lining up as good as the back and that he had a slight overbite. He said this could be caused by a pacifier. And of course we were embarrassed and had to admit that he still uses a pacifier. He stated the obvious (to a speech pathologist) that the continued use of the pacifier could cause a tongue trust and other speech problems. As I may have mentioned before, we have tried to get rid of Cooper's happys with little success. I guess it's because I really wasn't ready for the challenge I knew it was going to be. Now there was no turning back.
So after Cooper's dentist visit we decided to go spend the rest of the morning at Hill Aerospace Museum.
He loved to sit in the jet and push all the buttons and pretend he was driving.
Cooper loved helping daddy test out the gyroscope. Spinning in circles was fun.
Soon it was time to go home and face the challenge of putting Cooper down for a nap without his "happy" Of course this was the first thing he asked for when Paul started to rock him. We tried to explain to Cooper that the dentist said it was time to get ride of his "happy". He didn't seem to understand and began to cry. Eventually, Cooper calmed down and let daddy read him a book. Almost an hour later, Paul was still rocking Cooper and decided it was time to try to put him in his crib. This was a disaster! Cooper cried and asked for his "happy". At this point Paul had had enough of Cooper. Grammy Rachel stepped in and ended up rocking him to sleep. It had taken over 2 hours to get him to go to sleep. And unfortunately he only slept for 45 minutes or so.
When Cooper woke up, he was not happy. I don't blame him. If someone took away my happiness I'd be pretty upset too. Cooper's bed time came fast. Grammy Rachel decided she would try to put Cooper to bed since she was not his usual routine. After rocking him for over an hour, she came down stairs and said he was finally asleep. Alas, this was not true. Cooper started crying again and would not stop. I volunteered to try and settle him down. After another half hour of rocking him, I was finally able to get him to settle down and go in his crib. I still had to rub his back and continue singing. I think it was almost 10 pm by the time I left his room. What a process. And the night was only beginning. My thoughts were worrying what was going to happen if he woke up during the middle of the night. Paul would usually go in and give Cooper his "happy" and he would go right back to sleep. Now what would we do? Five A.M. rolls around and Cooper begins to make some noise. I was so very thankful that I was able to put him back to sleep with a back rub and a song in only 10 minutes! Go mommy! Day 1 without a happy was over.
I'm hoping that Cooper will soon forget about his "happy". I feel so guilty not giving it to him every time he asks. So what if he has dental problems, or speech problems. I had braces and turned out just fine. And his mommy is a speech pathologist that knows many tricks to help with speech problems. I feel like I am taking away his safety net and comfort that he has known since he was born. I feel like a bad parent, although I know I'm not. Many parents go through this with their children. I knew this was going to be hard, but I didn't realize that we would have to sleep train Cooper all over again. Well, hopefully tomorrow will be better.
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