OurWildflowers: Bye Bye Binkie

Well, the biggest thing to rock Olivia's world in July was that we finally had our visit from the Binkie Fairy. The mythical fairy that came to our house to transform Olivia from baby to big girl overnight. In reality, it was the best way for Mommy and Daddy to pass the blame onto someone else and not have to be the bad guy taking away her beloved binkies. ( Hey! - It was the fairy!!) I built it up for a long time beforehand. We talked about how special she was for being a big girl, how it was important for her to give her binkies to the fairy, so that the fairy could then deliver these binkies to new babies all over that would be needing them. In exchange for Olivia's grand gesture she would be rewarded with a gift (or 3- this time it was Dad feeling guilty) and some cookies. We took lots of time to intricately transform a shoebox into the "binkie box" which would be the vessel which would deliver the binkies to the magical fairy. We were ready, I was SO nervous.

Olivia was fine as bedtime neared. She helped gather all of the binkies and put them in the box, which we decided to leave near the fireplace. I guess the Binkie Fairy and Santa travel the same. Once we snuggled in for our stories, that is when things started to get kind of hairy. She started to come up with every excuse in the book as to why she needed her binkies back. Her asking turned to begging, begging turned to crying, then crying turned to anger and the best and final stage was all out full-blown rage. Jon and I were in awe and slightly shocked at how angry sweet miss Olivia could be. I will not go into the dramatic details, but a few hours later a very exhausted and binky-less Olivia finally passed out. Jon and I were so proud that we hadn't caved. Although a few hours later she woke up , naturally looking for her binky, was reminded that they were gone and the cycle started again. This lasted two nights and then finally she started to accept her fate of being a "big girl".

Three weeks later, as I finally have a chance to write about it- she is doing much much better. We have had some very rough nights mixed in with some nights where she sleeps soundly the whole time. We have discovered that a consistent early bedtime really helps Olivia to get the best sleep she can and also greatly reduces the night waking (she has night terrors and cries in the night without actually waking up , but thats a whole other issue we had been working with before Binkie fairy came, so losing the pacifier only intensified that for a little bit) But whew! we did it!! The Binkies are gone and on their way to being a memory, until of course in only about 8 short weeks our next Little Miss arrives and we start over :) I can't wait.

Here are some pictures from our jam packed weekend celebrating Olivia and the bittersweet good-bye to her beloved binky- again the guilty feeling parents thought she deserved some spoiling for all the "trauma" we were adding into her life. :)