Bye Bye Binkie

In January we weaned Norah off her binkie. We had been talking about it for a while since both George and I don't like it when little kids have binkies. We're all for babies and binkies, but it's just weird to see a three year old walking around with one. Then I noticed she had chewed a few tiny holes at the base. I was concerned she would chew the whole thing off in the middle of the night! So we sniped a little hole in the end so it would feel weird to her. She was not happy. That was a difficult night. The next night wasn't as bad, and after the third night she didn't complain much at all. However, because it didn't feel right when she sucked on it anymore, she chewed it a lot more. I noticed some big holes in the base after a few nights...so we decided to just cut the whole thing off.

We let her have the base, giving it to her at naptime and bedtime just like we would have done before. She said a lot of 'Uh Oh!' and 'Oh No...' So we just told her binkie was all done, agreed with her every time she brought it to us, 'yup, binkie uh oh, it's all gone, it's all done' and tried not to make a big fuss about it. We let her take the base to bed with her, which was a little comical when she tried to put it in her mouth. She did cry a little the first few naps and nights. Nothing too horrible, just that complaining cry that you know isn't serious.

After about a week of sleeping with the base she stopped looking for it in her bed, so I just took it out.

It's been about a month and a half now, and she's doing just fine. Sometimes I wish we still had one when she's being really cranky, but mostly I'm happy she's done with it!