2. Move to a new house
3. Visit from scary Grandma (haha! She tolerated her toward the end of the visit).
4.Transitioned from the crib to a toddler bed
5. No more Binky!
5. No more Binky!
I have loved those pacifiers. I sort of miss them, almost as much as Scarlett did when we took them away. I would've given her a pacifier until she was four if it meant she slept as consistently and easily as she did. We would just throw her into her crib with her binkies, say "Ni-Night" and walk away. She slept 9 to 8, napped 1 to 4. Hardly a peep; it was magical.
As Brian could attest, I have been stressed out about when and how to take her binky away. It seriously frightened me. Scarlett was extremely attached to hers.
In her new toddler bed, she often lost them in the middle of the night and woke up crying for us to retrieve them for her. Annoying, but a quick fix. Then, one exhausting day, she didn't nap, even with all her binkies. I decided that today was the day we get rid of them once and for all.
After her nap time I took all her binkies except her favorite green one and cut the tips. She was pretty sad that they were "broken", and when Dad got home she threw them away herself.
That evening we went to Build A Bear, and Binky Bear was born. This part was easy. We all look so happy.
That night was SO SAD. She was so confused and hurt when we reminded her that her binky was in her new bear. We told her we could cuddle the bear instead, and she was disgusted by the very thought of that being the replacement. She cried and coudln't calm down for an hour until I started singing Primary songs. She had me sing I am a Child of God on Repeat and then she fell asleep from exhaustion at around 10:30.
I thought, "Wow, that was pretty good!" until she woke up at midnight so tired and upset. We tried to soothe her by cuddling but she was just writhing and squirming like she was in pain and tiredly begging (screaming) for her binky. I decided to take her for a drive to help her fall asleep and she did not calm down for the 45 minutes we were on the road. It was emotionally exhausting. I felt terrible for training her to rely on her bink to fall asleep. Why did I do this to her?!
When we got home with her sobbing, Brian tried his hand at calming her down. She finally quieted when they watched an episode of her favorite cartoon, and got to sleep around 3 in the morning.
She slept in that day, and I was AMAZED she was happy when she woke up and had seemed to already have forgiven me.
After her nap time I took all her binkies except her favorite green one and cut the tips. She was pretty sad that they were "broken", and when Dad got home she threw them away herself.
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| Scarlett leaping through the air after Build-A-Bear. Life was easy, hearts were light. |
That night was SO SAD. She was so confused and hurt when we reminded her that her binky was in her new bear. We told her we could cuddle the bear instead, and she was disgusted by the very thought of that being the replacement. She cried and coudln't calm down for an hour until I started singing Primary songs. She had me sing I am a Child of God on Repeat and then she fell asleep from exhaustion at around 10:30.
I thought, "Wow, that was pretty good!" until she woke up at midnight so tired and upset. We tried to soothe her by cuddling but she was just writhing and squirming like she was in pain and tiredly begging (screaming) for her binky. I decided to take her for a drive to help her fall asleep and she did not calm down for the 45 minutes we were on the road. It was emotionally exhausting. I felt terrible for training her to rely on her bink to fall asleep. Why did I do this to her?!
When we got home with her sobbing, Brian tried his hand at calming her down. She finally quieted when they watched an episode of her favorite cartoon, and got to sleep around 3 in the morning.
She slept in that day, and I was AMAZED she was happy when she woke up and had seemed to already have forgiven me.
The next night was pretty hard to get her to sleep, but once she got there she didn't wake up. Improvement.
The next week she was pretty much over it. I was very relieved, and surprised she didn't try to steal Alice's pacifiers. Now that its over, I'm so glad we got over this milestone. Maybe next time around, we'll try to sleep without a bink once in a while so Alice isn't so reliant on them. I don't know. Parenting is hard.
The good news is we're slowly getting back into a nap schedule, which I hold dear. I had to move her naptime from 1:00 to 2:30 PM to get her to sleep during the day. Occasionally she'll skip it, but I don't really mind because then we get her in bed a little earlier. But those days she likes to fall asleep around dinner time...
She's relearned how to fall asleep and I've come to realize parenting is all about sacrificing good things for better. Its just up to the parents to decide when, and its scary. I'm sorry you are our experiment child, Scargirl. Its pretty amazing you still love us. Next test to tackle: Potty Training.
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