The past 2 weeks have been busy for Molly. Not only did she throw away her binky but she moved out of her crib and into a "big girl bed". Getting rid of the binky has been on our minds for a few months, but we knew it would be hard. Even though we weren't letting Molly have her binky outside of her crib, she had come to rely on it to help her fall asleep.
I planted the idea of throwing the binky away 2 weeks ago before Molly's nap. At first she was completely against it. I talked to her about being a big girl and that she didn't need her binky anymore. "No throw away!" So I told her she didn't have to do it right now but when she was ready she could have a treasure in exchange for throwing away the binky. I thought this might go on for a day or two ending with a trip to the toy aisle.
About 30 minutes after our discussion, Molly asked for some m&m's. It was getting close to lunch so being the good mom that I am I told her no. She thought for a second and gabbered something like,"throw binky m&m's?"
Come on now, who in their right mind doesn't say yes to that? We hurried upstairs to grab the binky before she had time to think about it. I talked about what we were doing and gave her the binky. She threw it in the garbage and I made a big deal about saying "bye bye!" Then, for good measure, we tied up the kitchen trash bag and Molly helped me carry it outside to the garbage bin. We said our goodbyes again and went inside where Molly made a beeline for the m&m's.
With naptime came the hard part. Molly asked for her binky and I reminded her that she had thrown it away. Then she cried. She cried for 1 1/2 hours. I cried a little too. It took everything I had to not get the binky out of the garbage and comfort my baby! She didn't nap that day and bedtime was almost as hard. She was so worn out that she finally fell asleep. She had trouble sleeping for the next 2 nights but she didn't ask for her binky again.
"So hey, since we're working on this binky thing why don't we transition Molly into a big bed too. Change is hard enough so let's do it all at once!" I don't know if that was smart on our part or if we were completely out of our minds. We had Molly start sleeping on a twin mattress the day after she threw away her binky. Truth be told, Shane was out of town and I was using this as a ploy to get her to take a nap. I'd bring the big mattress into her room if she'd stay on in for her nap. Genius! (or so I thought). She had a great nap. We decided to buy her a bed.
That night she figured out that she could get out of bed and come into our room. I walked around like a zombie for a week from waking up so many times every night to take her back into her room and then cried my way through the next week from sheer exhaustion. I was just so tired!
I think our consistency is beginning to pay off. Molly only woke up once the last 2 nights and she's back on her schedule of 12 hours of sleep. I'm going to trow a party the first night she sleeps through the night in her new bed!
Big Girl Bed!
