Well three days ago Ty officially said goodbye to his binkie! What a crazy ride we have had with that suck 'em. How did we do this you ask? Well it was planned. We had come up with several different ways in the last 6 months to get rid of this security item that Ty has become attached to in so many ways.
First we thought we would send it to Santa Claus. We discussed this with Ty and he thought it would be great!. We would give it to Santa Claus and he would then receive lots of gifts. But when it came time to write Santa a summer letter he was not having any part of it (despite many efforts).
Second we came up with the notion that we would give it away to another little person. This stuck around for a while until Ty picked our second son to give it to and I realized that was more months away than what I wanted him to have the binkie for. The goal for me was before he begins preschool Ty would give up his binkie. Now he only used binkie for night time sleeping. We have pretty much not had binkie during the days since he's been to daycare.
I then realized that we really needed binkie on the trip to Hawaii because he was familiar with it, it could help pop his ears and truly I DON"T THINK WE (BYRON AND I ) were ready for what may lie ahead. The potential of screaming, a big fit or something was going to occur and I just quite frankly did not want to deal with it. Was Ty giving up the binkie or were we? It was so easy to just give him the binkie. But I kept thinking it was time. Sooooo..
When we came back from Hawaii, I decided to begin poking small little holes in the suck 'em portion of the pacifier. No one knew, not even Byron. A week went by and one morning Ty looked at me and showed me his binkie asking what had happend? I simply said to him, "the binkie is three years old and it is starting to crack. When it is cracked all the way then you will have to throw binkie away and say goodbye." He looked at me and said, "ok." Well I knew what that meant. Okay for now but when the time comes good luck! Over the past few weeks the discussion continued as Ty began to realize that the binkie continued to break down and the nipple was hanging by a last little piece of plastic. Worried about this Byron and I continued to assure Ty that he would be fine without the binkie and that it would need to be thrown away once the piece was completely off because of the safety issues.
Monday morning, August 14th, 2011 the binkie completely broke. Ty looked at me and said, "momma it broke" and of course asked why. I explained again that the binkie only works for so long and three years is a long time. I also explained it was time to throw binkie away. He thought he might take a stab at keeping the bigger portion and put that piece back into his mouth but realized that that really wasn't worth it. So he put both pieces on the counter and asked if I would throw it away. So I made sure that he said goodbye to it and thank you for the special times and then we both watched as it was placed into the garbage!
Whew... He watched a little TV that morning and had a very special Sunday. There was no mention of the binkie when I returned home that evening. In fact, Ty decided to fall asleep on the couch at 4 pm and slept through the night. We of course moved him into his bedroom for the evening but a surprising turn. Maybe he was growing. Monday morning he awoke in a great mood and there was still no mention of the binkie. Wow, were we lucky? This seemed easier than I thought. Again Monday evening Ty fell asleep on the couch around 4:30 and was moved to his room around 6:30 while he was sound asleep. He slept until the following morning when he awoke. No request for the binkie, no mention of it and no sign of it anywhere. Byron and I were amazed. Truly it was too good to be true.
Tuesday evening, I returned home from work and Ty and I played, he helped to make dinner and to water my flowers. Byron came home from work, he played with Ty, we ate dinner and then the "REQUEST" came. "I want my binkie." I looked and Byron and he looked at me and we smile we knew it was too good to be true. I explained to Ty what we did a few days back and he began to cry. We calmed him down and watched a little TV while we put PJ's on and then went to brush our teeth and go to the bathroom. We typically read a book or two or three before he falls asleep but tonight.... Ty just curled up in bed and cried himself to sleep repeating over and over, "I want my binkie." It didn't take long though for me maybe the longest 3-5 minutes. Whew it could have been worse.
This morning we continue to explain what occurred to the binkie and reassure Ty that he is just fine and old enough to go without. That conversation didn't last long. So maybe by the end of the week we will have the thoughts of binkie, buying a new one as he would request, completely out of our minds and discussions. It is time and we are ready.
This entire process has made me think twice about the binkie usage and what I might plan to do with our new addition. It has been a long journey to break this habbit and not an easy one I might add.
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