Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Saying Goodbye to the "Dink"

Cohen had a monumental weekend.  We didn't have any plans for the weekend, so I suggested to DJ that we begin binky "detox" on Friday.  I've had it hanging over my head for the last 6-9 months, knowing that it needed to be done, but scared of what it would look like.  Ab and Rudy gave us a last minute invite to their house on Friday night, so we ended up going, thinking maybe it would wear Cohen out and bedtime wouldn't be quite so hard. He definitely got worn out.  We took him up to bed around 11:15 and I ended up just putting him in his crib and walking out after I realized he wasn't going to stop fighting me.  He cried when I left, but only for a few minutes and he was done.  Night one - check. 

The next day we planned to go to the farmer's market and then to Grant's baseball game.  Again, great opportunites to wear his wild butt out!  It worked, laid him down for a nap, no problem.  That night was a regular bedtime and routine and Cohen did great!  No fussing, no fighting us.  This was wwwwwwwwwwway to easy!  Full day #2 - check!

Sunday was very hot, but we had planned on doing some work around the house and trying to get Cohen out to play for awhile.  DJ laid him down for his nap that morning and finally, we got the fight that we expected.  He cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep.  No afternoon nap that day because MawMaw and Papa were at the house.  Bedtime went down without a hitch, again!  Day #3 - check!

Monday was a new ballgame.  Time to go back to the babysitters.  Diane has told me that when she lays him down for a nap he goes right for his bink and he knows right where it's at because he always puts it in the same spot after getting up from his nap.  Hmm... I wasn't too sure how it would go, but I told Shirley that morning that we had a successful, binky-free weekend and that I was going to go ahead and collect all of the binkys at the house.  I didn't expect he would give Diane and Shirley too much trouble because he generally knows they mean business :)  I was anxious to hear the report at the end of the day.  Shirley said he did good!  He cried for a few minutes and went right to sleep.  Last night he asked DJ for his "dink" when he was getting laid down in his crib, but no crying after that and he slept all night without a peep!

Apparently I underestimated my child.  I thought binky detox was going to be horrible!  We had cut down to just naptime and bedtime.. for the most part, but he rrrrreally liked having it when he slept.  We were giving him one to hold and one to suck.. binky fein :)  He is doing 400x better than I expected though and I hesitate to say this, but I think we are pretty much in the clear at this point.  It feels good to have finally be rid of the bink.  As much as Cohen loved it, I worried about it affecting his teeth, speech and health.  We battled so many cold and flu bugs this year and I knew the binky was probably a big culprit.  So hopefully, getting rid of the bink will make for a happier, better rested and healthier Cohen.  Very proud of the big boy...

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