Binky Time

It has been entertaining to identify differences in my girls, and I don't just mean hair color.

June 12, 2013

 Abbi is so very easy.  Just like Valette, she goes to sleep very quickly once you wrap her up and give her the binky.  Very unlike Valette, that is the only time she really wants it.  I can give it to her when she fusses at other times, but she will only suck on it for about 2.5 seconds.  She prefers her fingers.  (Notice she has the first two fingers of her right hand in her mouth in this photo?  That is a favorite activity.  Another difference from Valette, who never sucked her fingers.)  But when it is time to sleep, she loves her binky.  That might only be because she can't get to her fingers at that point, who knows?

Valette, has always LOVED her binky.  She took it easily and used it all the time.  We switched to the binky only being allowed in her crib around her first birthday.  This was pretty easy to manage, when I would get her out, I could take the binky and usually I put it out of her reach.  When she moved up to her big girl room and big girl bed she started getting out of bed with the binky.  I would let her keep it until I changed her diaper the first time in the morning and then put it away.  She started throwing fits about it being where she can't reach it, I was lazy and let her put it on this shelf above her head.  (She saw me put the binky on the high closet shelf the first day she moved in there, and then copied me.  Sometimes she would go in her room to get a "binky fix," knowing that she was not supposed to have it she always stayed in the closet for these.  On this day she fell asleep while hiding with her binky.  I had to get a picture.

On July 12 (a week ago) we finally took the no-binky plunge. I have been wanting/needing to do this since about January, but I didn't because I was dreading losing the ease of naptime and bedtime.  Valette was always excited for her naps because she knew she could have the binky.  I took Abbi to the pediatrician on July 11, while there I asked when to get rid of the binky because I was worried about it affecting teeth.  He said by 18 months, that was the final straw.  Eighteen months was a year ago.   The next morning I went and cut the binky down the middle while Valette was not in the room.  She noticed a while before nap time (probably when she went in there for a fix) but didn't cry about it.  She just came and told me the binky wasn't working.  When naptime came I let her go get it and then talked to her about how a broken binky means she is a big girl and doesn't need it anymore.  She cried, but only for about five minutes and then slept easy.  At bedtime she rehearsed back to me the things I had told her about being too big for a binky and went to sleep just like that.

The next two nights involved crying and weren't as easy, but since then it has been great.  She mentions it sometimes but doesn't ask for it.  I guess I didn't need to be so afraid.  I am so pleased.

(Next we will tackle potty training.  I'm hoping to find I didn't need to worry so much about that one either.)