Operation Sianara Soother!

We recently decided that the soother should probably leave soon. No offense to others that keep there binky's, paci's, dumb dumbs', choochoos', past 2, but watching him with it every day, seemed to get more and more attached. I was warned to rid of it prior to now but seeing as we were transitioning other things it just didn't seem like a good idea yet... or was this just a good excuse because I mommy wasn't ready... i think its probably leading towards the latter. i just didn't feel like it was the right time. my baby. growing up so quickly, loosing the soother would just be one more thing. He is now inches away from touching head to toe in his crib/ toddler bed (which he sleeps wonderfully in now! and even sometimes chooses the big single bed!) Using the potty, we have still been really relaxed on the the potty but he consistently goes every day at least once or twice, sometimes all his pees and poos for the day. I think that we will be able to go full time when I am home full time and have the ability to have a consistent routine with him every day. He is a little communicator, though shy in front of new people, he is talking like crazy, now talking in a lot of full sentences 6 or 7 words even! knows almost all of the alphabet, sings songs all day, counts to 20, playing baseball  (actually hits the ball with a bat!), and basketball (amazed that he can throw the ball from 3 feet away and get it in!), golf and hockey (passes to daddy and he passes back), I just can't believe my BABY is growing up so fast. Faster than I expected. So the soother, perhaps was one last thing to hold on to... before admitting that my little baby is becoming more and more my little man.  I don't want him to grow up. and brings me to tears thinking about him getting big. its just going by so fast.  I think of my parents, they must still look at us and think and remember us as little babies. I understand when my mom used to go through our baby clothes and memories and cry because I do it too.  Anyway side thoughts, all consuming thoughts.. man i love him. After reading studies and a lot on soothers and toddlers, and not only addiction to the soother, development of the mouth and theeth and possible stunting emotional development and learning coping, we decided, I needed to suck it up and we needed to just do it. Get rid of the soother. So we set a date weeks ago, the next long weekend so that we could have all thursday night, friday, saturday and sunday to wean him prior to sending him back to daycare on monday..   So here we started...

Day 1: Day one was better than what it could have been, we decided to watch the "bye bye binky" song by elmo. So he went around the house singing bye bye soother all day long. At the end of the day we talked to him about saying bye bye to the soother and putting it in the garbage. After some time of him getting some last sucks and chews in he decided to say bye bye and threw the soother in the garbage. We waved, and then gave him lots of praise and told him how proud we were of him. We headed to bed and continued with the regular bedtime routine. When it came to the end when we turn off the light, he asked for his soother, we reminded him that he threw it the garbage. He at first accepted it, we said goodnight, closed the door and thought we were in the clear. Untill 30 seconds later when the crying began. "my soodah, my soodah, peeeeaaase daddy, peeaaaase" every cry a stab in my heart. Our wonderful sleeper all he wanted was that 2 minutes of sucking to fall asleep, (he only had it during sleep time, not during the day) but it killed me to know, that this would just take a couple minutes and he would be to sleep! how could i be doing this?  but Luke encouraged me to hold on. 10 minutes went by, OHHHH my heart!!! IT ACHES IT ACHES, MY HEART!!! i go up i try to comfort him, he wants daddy. I come downstairs and Luke goes in and hear his sobbing through the monitor. I cry, my baby I am torturing him!! Luke comes down and says we just have to keep sticking it out (man my husband is awesome). I want to cave. I want to rescue him, I want it to stop. I want to cry, I do cry. I want to grab that soother from the garbage and give it to him. But then, 15  more minutes later... silence. he sleeps. The thing about Jack is that he doesn't actually need the soother, he loves sleep and doesn't even sleep with a soother all night, he just uses it to dope himself out. As soon as he is asleep hi spits it out. 

He woke up once in the night and once in the morning, but both times went back down without a problem too sleepy to even think about the soother.

I survived. My heart is bruised but I survived.

Day 2:

Naptime: Luke was home with him, put him down for nap, and Jack asked for his soother, Luke did awesome, and questioned him, "Soother? but remember you threw it in the garbage." He recieved that. " Soother in the garbage, bye bye" some fussing but 2 minutes later He was asleep.


Night time: Same bed time routine, he again asks for the soother, we remind him again he threw it in the garbage and say goodnight, close the door and walk out. for the next 15 minutes we hear him babbling in his room about his soother, "where soodah? oh garbage, garbage, soodah in the garbage. bye bye soodah! in garbage. my name is jack sinnott, jack sinnott, jack sinnott, soodah in the garbage, bye bye bye bye bye bye. soooodaaahhh" and on it went. until, silence. he fell asleep, mind you in front of the door not in bed, but he fell asleep. without a fight, without the soother. 

End of Day 2 and I have hope. We aren't going back. We will stick it out, we are strong enough. Sianara Soother.