You have all heard of baby-boot camp where little ones are encouraged to sleep better by their parent, even if it requires some sad moments.
We, at the McCleary house, are going through "Toddler-training camp" to get rid of our beloved binky.
- Matthew had to give up his binky at age 2, Carolyn at age 1 (when we couldn't get rid of a rash below her lip, because of the moisture caused from the binky) and Joel hated binkies.
- I let Anna keep hers longer because I didn't want to jeopardize nap time.
- Well nap time hasn't been going that great anyway. She normally still takes a nap, but not without fussing at me first on several days of the week. I decided if she was going to fuss anyway, she may as well fuss without the binky.
- Anna is prone to catching germs. I decided that binkies weren't doing us any favors even if they stayed in her bed, since it isn't like we boil them each day! Plus sometimes she doesn't want to give it up when she gets out of bed, especially if she isn't choosing to get up.
- One of Anna's binkies was getting a tear, so it needed to be thrown away anyway. So we talked about it being broken and we cut off the suckie part. She was sad that her binky was broken, but I decided that if I waited until she was three, then I had no prayers that naps would continue once the binky was gone. Now, at least, she still needs a nap, so I think exhaustion will win out.
Wish us luck and say a prayer. I think Anna is about asleep for her nap. This may not be easy, but it has to happen some day and it just feels like now is a good time....I don't think Anna agrees, but I do think she would be willing to suck on her binky on the way to kindergarten...she likes it that much!
Good luck! I'll be praying for camp to be short.
ReplyDeleteI was going to let Margaret keep hers for bed/nap time until she was in K.to help me survive--okay, maybe walmart and church time, too!--..unfortunately, she never took to one and wouldn't even take it as a newborn!! bridget was the same way.
ReplyDeleteben is the only one who used one which, of course, i didn't really "need" since i only had one then...but the speech therapist made us stop when he was 12 months or so. (didn't help the speech!)
hang in there, anna!
:)m
day 1 - Anna napped after telling me her woes for an hour....I finally just put her in Carolyn's bed and she was so tired she crashed. Of course we had to leave an hour later to get the kids at school, but I am hoping that made her nice and tired for tonight's sleep
ReplyDeleteThis was a harder transition for our youngest than for the oldest. We let it go longer too...for the sake of peace and I think that ended up making it harder overall. Hang in there.
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