Binky Fairy: Day 1

It's morning. We survived the first night sans-binky. That in itself is a huge accomplishment, for Katherine and for us. After opening the letter, Katherine willingly put all her binkys in the box and we put it outside for the binky fairy. She took the bunny and told her how proud we were of her. She was fine for about 20 minutes then started crying and screaming hysterically for the binky. So mommy said she was such a big girl, maybe she'd like a popsicle to celebrate? I know, 8:00 isn't the best time for that, but I was all about distraction.

So, I put Natalie to bed and while reading her stories I can hear Katherine crying while Dean is trying to calm her. So ensues the pattern for the next 2.5 hours. She was crying, screaming "no!" and very tired. We took turns rocking her. I finally got her to fall asleep while rocking her, but when I tried to move her to the crib she woke up and was crying again. So I left her in the crib and sat next to it soothing and singing to her. She finally fell asleep, woke up w/in two minutes and started crying again. Then she finally fell asleep for good. It was so hard. It's heart wrenching to hear your child in despair, know exactly what she wants, and not give it to her.

I went to bed as I was pretty certain she would wake up again. And she did. At 12:30 and she was hysterical. Screaming, crying... poor thing. I felt awful. But we talked to her, Dean brought in some warm milk and she settled down. Fell asleep in the rocker, I moved her to the crib, she cried momentarily and then fell asleep. This time it took about 30 minutes. And then, slept until 7:00!

We checked outside this morning and sure enough the binky fairly had left presents for both Katherine and super big sister Natalie. She loved her princess shoes and has been hugging Pooh Bear all morning. So sweet. We then went to Panera for scones to celebrate.

Hopefully that will be the worst of it. I know she understands that the binkys are gone, but I predict more crying at nap time. It just breaks my heart to hear the forlorn, sad cries. I'm hoping it will get a bit easier for her each day until she forgets about the binkys and sleep with ease like she used to. Stay tuned...