Bye Bye Binkie!!!!!

I don't know how to start this post. Chris and I are sort of in shock at what is going on at bedtime around here. It began at my parents house Monday December 26th (I'm a little behind on the blog) when Linnea slept over there while we were at the Wild game. Apparently she was being VERY silly and squirrely for them before bed. Not putting jammies on, not listening to stories, and basically probably just not listening. We may have missed the terrible twos in the twos and we are seeing some sort of terrible three's, but nothing too bad yet...Anyways...so after trying and trying to get her to settle down and relax for bedtime my mom just sort of picked Linnea up and said somewhat firmly, it is time for bed, do you just want to lay down like this in your clothes with no stories? Her lullabies were on and the bed was ready. Linnea said yes I do just want to go to bed like this. So they let her crawl in, gave her hugs and kisses and left the room. Left the room fully expecting her to cry or call out for stories and especially for that darn binkie that she has still been sleeping at night with. Well none of that happened. They did not hear a peep out of her until morning (well a little stirring around 11pm but that's it.)

Sooooo when Chris and I heard this we decided we are going with it. She is going to be done with the binkie. She is three and she needs to learn how to sleep all night without it. She has been napping without it for almost a year. So we are now on night 4 (actually we are going on 2 weeks now since I am so behind) without her beloved binkie. She still asked for it the first 4 nights after we gave it up and cried about it a little while we were reading to her but we just reminded her that she can do it, she has done it for many nights in a row. We remind her if she makes it all week she will get yet another new toy! We also told her that her cousin baby Jake (and we emphasized baby) doesn't use one and that seemed to really make sense to her. We told her he just uses his thumb. We may eventually give her one and only binkie left to baby Kaylan or send it up to the babies in heaven on a balloon or we may just never look at it again. We expected this to be so much harder. We were preparing to do a countdown and read books about it and everything but so far we haven't needed to. The binkie has been her only form of comfort and soothing her whole life besides us or other loved family members. She isn't attached to any of her toys or blankets. She likes them and they are in her bed with her but she doesn't snuggle with them. Her other form of soothing is rubbing her side with her finger. I have read a book to her each night this week that ends with a picture of a little girl sleeping and sucking her thumb and hugging her teddy bear. The girl looks about Linnea's age and every time L sees this picture, she says, hey she doesn't have a binkie, just like I don't have a binkie. She is just sucking her thumb. I can suck my thumb. I think she may start out with her thumb but she doesn't keep it in her mouth all night. Whatever she is doing though, it is working and it is much easier than we could have ever imagined. Thank you mom and dad for just laying her down! Clothes and all but no binkie! hooray!