Bye Bye Binkie

Can you believe it? We actually did it! It came to a point where the "binkie bink", as Ty calls it, was causing more bad than good. Ty would throw it when we would put him to bed, and then cry and cry because he wanted it back. We would have to keep going in and finding it for him. He would repeat the same thing all through the night as well. We kept playing this game with him, and it got me so frustrated that I finally said enough was enough, the bink had to go. So two weeks ago, I started telling him that the next monday we were going to throw the bink away, and the garbage truck was going to come and get it. Then we would go to the store and he would get to pick out a new toy to sleep with at night. He was actually very excited about this. I was dreading it, but knew that his sleeping couldn't be any worse than it already was. So, last monday, after Ty got up, I told him today was the day he would be a "big boy", and throw his binks away. We gathered all the binks in the house, and Ty took them out to the garbage.

Then Ty helped me wheel the garbage can over to the street. I made sure that he saw the binkies in the bottom of the garbage can.
We then had to wait for the garbage truck to come take them away. I felt that this was a very important part of the plan. He had to actually watch the garbage truck take them away. Finally the garbage truck came, and Ty was still very excited about the whole thing. He loved watching the garbage truck empty the garbages. He yelled very enthusiastically, "bye bye binks!"

My mom came up with the cute idea to go to Build-A-Bear and let Ty pick out a new teddy bear, so that is where we headed next. Ty had a lot of fun stuffing and bathing his new bear. We made a recording of me singing one of his favorite songs, and put it in the hand.

Then we headed back home to try for a nap. I had just planned on him not taking one because I didn't think it was possible without his bink. Surprisingly, I was wrong. He pushed the button in the bear to play his song about 100 times, and then he fell asleep. He didn't make a peep that night either. When he woke up in the morning, he asked for his binkie, and we just reminded him that the garbage truck took it away, and he is a big boy now. That was a week ago today, and he has only asked for his bink a few times. He has had a few rough nights trying to fall asleep, but nothing worse than it was before when he had his bink. I never imagined it would go so well. I always stress about things way more than I should. Ty has made most things so easy for me. He is such a sweet boy.

Here he is holding his new bear, who he named Ty. Goodnight Ty and Ty. We love you!