Bye Bye Binky

Jonas has achieved a big boy milestone, check it out folks....

He's gone from this....

To this!

Have you guessed it yet?  Yep!  He's binky free and proud to be!  Well, I'm sure "he's" not proud to be - but I am!

It was a process folks....

Our goal all along was to wean him off his beloved binky by the time he turned two years old.  I was going to phase it out before then by only letting him have it at nap time and night time but I couldn't be consistent so we shelved it until this September.  I figured it'd be cruel of me to make him give it up on his birthday (he loves his binky folks).  So we waited.  Then, we had a little road-trip to Branson the following week and heaven knows you don't want to interrupt sleep patterns on a road trip....so I waited.  Then the following Sunday I was prepared to wean him off of it and instead he decided to scald his little hand on my hot curling iron while we were getting ready for church.  I figured it'd be cruel to take away his one source of comfort when he was in so much pain....so we waited.  FINALLY, the day came where he was healed, and happy, and we were homebound...so we did it!  And can I just say I do NOT miss having to hunt down those binkies anymore.  Life is so much more simple when you don't have to haul three kiddos AND their accessories everywhere you go.

Essentially, we did it cold turkey.  But I was nice about it.  We gathered his binkies up on a Sunday afternoon and put them in a baggie.  He even got to take a final suck off of each one before we put them away.  Then, we sealed up the bag and walked to the front door and placed them outside for the "Binky Fairy" and waited.  Within a few minutes (and thanks to Daddy's secret stealth moves) we checked back to see what the Binky Fairy left him.  She was so kind as to take his dirty, nasty, old binkies and leave him some cool matchbox cars instead.  He was in heaven.  Until he wanted his binky again that night.  I don't know how much of the process he actually understood (if any) but hey at least we tried to transition him.  All of our kids have been binky lovers but he is particularly more than Addison was.  The first night was not fun...for him or us.  Just a lot of repetitive "Binky went bye-bye, you are a big boy now!" as we laid him in bed over and over again. He cried...lots...and moaned for his binky.  "Biiiinnnkkkyyy....biiiinnnkkkyyy"  Eventually he fell asleep with tears in his eyes.  It took a few more days and nights of that process until it became obsolete.  Now, almost three weeks later he no longer mentions that binky....which is a HUGE step for him!  He had TWO years of his life (all he's ever known) with that binky as his comfort.  To be forced to give it up cold turkey is quite an accomplishment.  I'm quite proud of him (even though he didn't have a choice ;).  It was a big step for Jonas-kind.  He doesn't even ask for it now but there are many days where I wish we could have it back just for a few seconds here and there.  One thing he does do more often is whine....ahhhhh I don't have much energy for whining....non-stop.  It's a good thing I don't carry a back-up binky on me because there are a handful of times I got weak and just wanted to put an end to the whining.  We push through though.  I just keep reminding myself that the days will get easier and I'm not about to go restarting the process/transition by giving in and plugging him up with a binky.  And he's only tried to sneak a few sucks of Brooklyn's binky when I wasn't looking.  I figured he'd try to do that a lot more too.  

So proud of our big boy Jonas!  And so glad we don't have to hunt that binky down anymore.  Yay for one less accessory!  

The happy guy posing with his treasures the Binky Fairy sent him.