Last week, after two days of arguing with Parker over when he was & was not allowed to have binky (it's supposed to just be at nap- and bed-time), I threw my hands in the air & said, "maybe we should just take it away entirely!"
That night, we put Parker to bed without his binky, and without incident.
The next day, after two hours of crying, Parker never did get around to taking his nap.
But, after that, things seemed to get better. Of course, he always goes down easier when Keith puts him down (bedtime) than when I put him down (nap time), but the crying times were getting shorter.
Then, yesterday, we had another 2-hour no-sleeping crying fest at nap time, which included all three family members present (in both the no-sleeping and the crying portion).
So, today, when Parker started crying at the mere mention of the word nap, I decided: forget it, I have a 6-week old, I wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night, I'm not fighting with a two-year-old over a tiny piece of plastic. He can take the thing to college with him at this point.
So, score one for binky. We'll try again in a few months.
In the meantime, Parker has been asleep for the past 2 1/2 hours.
Binky didn't win--Julie's sanity did. Maybe Wes and Parker can be roommates in college and not tell others than each still sucks on his binky or two fingers. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteyour story sounds very familiar and I'm starting to twitch just thinking about it. I have to say though I'll take the binky battle over the finger battle any day (still fighting that one after 5 years!). Good luck! Someday it will all be over and you can shove it in the back corner with all the other unpleasant memories.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, that sounds pretty miserable, but try not to let it get you down too much. For what it's worth, we've decided to let Sarah keep using the binky, and we just set clear boundaries about when and where she can use it. Both her pediatrician and her dentist gave me their blessing for this decision, so hopefully you and I aren't stunting our toddlers' development too badly. :)
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