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Thursday, February 19, 2009

My theories on Binky Breaking

I've noticed something about myself. I'm not as idealistic a mother after 3 kids as I was after 1. For instance, Hannah was potty trained early in her second year, and with Carter it took me until he was 3 to really get serious about it. Hannah wore a bib EVERY time she ate ANYTHING. Yeah, not so much with the boys. They both end up with little food stains on their clothes throughout the day, and I don't change them when they get messy. And I'm thinking, "do you know how much MORE laundry I'd have to do if my kids wore two outfits a day?"

Anyways, this brings me to binky breaking. I broke Hannah of her binky at 13 months, and it went fabulously. Carter was a teeny bit older, 15 months, but it went just as smoothly. I've watched several people go through the ringer with their kids and binky breaking. 2 and 3 and 4 years old, and still unable to sleep without the paci. Oh, I've thanked the stars that I broke them young because it was SO SIMPLE. Everything is easier when you do it young. Hannah potty-trained in about half the time as Carter.

So Ethan. He's kind of an anomaly because he never took a pacifier his entire first year and then found one and about 12 1/2 months, stuck it in his mouth and it's been a permanent appendage ever since. So now, he's almost 16 months. And with the house on the market, and Craig leaving I've kind of been making excuses for myself. "Oh, I just CAN'T handle doing it right now."

I like to think of it as a little more lax, or I guess lazy.

Ethan, by the way has a talent for losing binkies. And yesterday, the last one went missing. Craig took the kids out for the evening so I could do two showings on the house. On his way home he called me and asked if I wanted him to pick up some pacies. I took a deep breath and said no. Then I buckled up and got ready for some crying.

But it went okay. He cried a little more than usual. But then he went to sleep, and didn't wake up wanting his binky in the middle of the night, which was nice. He'll probably whine a little more than I'd like today. But then he'll stop and we'll move on in our binky-less life.

I think I've decided that it's better to bite the bullet now, than to deal with a big dependency later. And I'll be glad I did two months from now, or whenever, when we move and I don't have to deal with all the changes AND breaking the binky.

1 comments:

Darla said...

True, true. Dayne is now, what, 3 1.2? And we've had her off the binky (some for months at at time) multiple times. She keeps finding June's and INSISTING on having them for naptime. And she gets whinier and whinier when she's
"on" the binkie. It's crazy, I know. So I've decided to get June off for good (in the next few days) so Dayne won't have the temptation anymore. Good luck to you. You'll be happy you did it, right?