Binkies and Bottles

So we are currently in the get rid of binky and bottles phase. "T" has loved both since he was a baby and he is now almost 20 months old and still LOVES them. A little too much. He has been using a sippy cup as his main drink cup, but his night time and occasional morning comfort is his bottle. I didn't realize how hard the getting rid of the bottle would be. I mean it is getting easier, but it has had it's trials. Besides him getting older, we also had an issue with the bottle the other night that prompted us to start this process. The Mr. brought "T" his night bottle and next thing we know he had ripped the bottle nipple out of the bottle and poured it EVERYWHERE! At that point I was ready to be DONE with the bottles. The first night was the hardest by far and it has now been a week since we started this process. On that first night he just screamed at me and the Mr. We would put him down and sing him songs and rub his back and he just was not having it. He just kept yelling for his bottle. It ended up taking an hour to finally get him down to bed, but it was not without its resistance. Every night has been easier, but each night has come with his own challenges. I finally decided yesterday to have "T" throw away his bottles. We did the binkies the day before, but we will come back to that. I had thought he would be too young to understand what he was doing, but he did it and last night actually was a lot easier getting him to bed. We will continue to work on it, but I am not regretting getting rid of the bottles at all.

The binky has been even more of a challenge because he has been very reliant on it. I know it is partially my own fault, but every time he would get upset or yell while we were at church or other events, i would use it as the "Mute" button per-say. He then just wanted it all the time, even when he didn't need it. The other night I went over to my brother and sister-in-laws house for "The Bachelor Wedding" and the Mr. was putting "T" to bed. Normally this would be all fine and dandy, but we had misplaced two of the three binkies we had left and the third was in the car which I had driven. "T" was not happy about this and gave his daddy quite the task of getting him to bed. It took an hour and a half for "T" to FINALLY fall asleep, which happened to be about ten minutes before I got home. After that trial, we decided that we were going to get rid of the Binky. I know I am being quite ambitious to do both at the same time, but I decided that by the end of February I wanted "T" to not have either and decided that the best plan of action was to just do both at once. It has not been easy, but I am seeing it be worth it. "T" has always talked a lot for his age, but now he is talking more to me since he doesn't have something blocking his voice. The day before we threw away the bottles, we threw away his binkies. (Well the ones I have been able to find so far haha.) I had reached out on Facebook about getting rid of the binkies and I heard back some awesome ideas on getting rid of it. Some of the ideas were to put it in a balloon and let him let go of it. There was also the idea of cutting off the tip of the binky and eventually they don't like to suck it anymore. I also heard the cute idea that people would bring in their binkies to "Build-a-Bear" and put it in the bear before they closed it up. The final thought i heard was to do the "Binky Fairy" which was what we ended up doing. I just gave "T" his binkies and he threw them away to the Fairy. I wish I would have done it sooner in the week because he totally got what he was doing and I have found the last few days have been easier without the binky. Thank you Facebook friends for all your wonderful ideas!

So here we are, a week later and "T" is doing better. I know it is still going to be a bit before he is totally over the two, but at least we are on the right path. Next thing to master will be the sleeping through the night, but we will get to that another time!