One Week

I'm really hoping to get this in before Katie wakes up, which could be any minute now.  I apologize ahead of time if this isn't too coherent.

I promised I would do this blog post yesterday, but with work, church, and super active, bubbly toddler, it just wasn't going to happen.  And we have an equally busy day today, so if I don't do this now, it won't happen.

And now I'm rambling.  Oy.

All right - it's been one week.  One whole week.  No binky.  Here's how it went down.

The graduation from full binky to no binky was actually quite smooth.  We poked holes the first day.  We snipped the bitty tip the second.  Cut some more the third.  Made a long slit down the middle the fourth.  By Saturday, it was gone.

Last Saturday, I worked so Mike was home with Katie.  He said she did great, only asked for it once, and that last all of 3 seconds before she moved on.  She took her nap with no problem.  Mommy came home and it was a completely different story (I don't know why she would think I would give it to her - Mommy's the strict one in the family!).

She threw a very scary tantrum.  Blood curdling screams, hitting anyone and anything she came in contact with.  So I did what I thought was best.  I put her in a two minute timeout in her crib (we have since graduated to timeouts against the wall because I don't want her to associate her bed with punishment - I just needed to contain her somewhere).  We walked out of the room and out of sight.  She screamed for the entire two minutes.  They were SO full of emotion: anger, despair, melancholy, longing.  I didn't know a toddler could feel so much emotion in such a short span of time!

When the two minutes were up, I went in to "rescue" her, she clung to me, whimpering out "Mommy.  Binty.  Mommy.  Binty.  Mama?  Binty?"

And that was really the only meltdown we had!  Well, binky-related anyway.  She still has meltdowns when we leave YaYa's house (or when YaYa leaves our house - BTW, should I take offense at the fact that my daughter does not meltdown when I leave, or when Daddy leaves, or anyone else, for that matter?  Just when YaYa leaves).

And other than a very small number of times crying out for her binky, we've done really well without it!

I really must recommend trying this method out if you're looking for a way to ween your child off his/her pacifier.  What's the worst that could happen?

 So smiley ... and so in need of a haircut!

 We've taken to reading in the car to avoid meltdowns

 "Mommy, can you stop singing?  I'm trying to read."

I think this method is working really well!