I have been saving this post because I didn't want to jump the gun. Emmy has sucessfully been binky free for 2 weeks!!
It's organically come about so nothing was forced. We've been talking to her about giving them to Baby Finn because he's a baby and he needs them and she'd agree with us and engage in conversation about it. My original plan was going to be the next time we visited with the Morris's to have Emmy give Finn her binkies, but she lost them all before we had the chance.
We had 4-5 one day and the next day they were all lost somewhere inside the house. I explained to her that they were all lost and if we didn't find one then she wouldn't have it for bed time. She said okay and I asked her what she was going to do if she woke up and was sad.... I suggested that she cuddle up to me or dad and to close her eyes and try to go back to sleep. She agreed and I was weary...lol! To our amazement she didn't cry once in the night for it and it wasn't a big deal at all. She did ask me in the morning for one and I told her that Baby Finn must have them.
Later in the day I found 2 of them and stuck them up and I was hoping that I'd find the other ones before she did. She came up to me several times telling me about her binkies and Baby Finn and sometimes she'd say "lets go get them back" or "can he spit them out" but she wasn't upset...she just said it very calmly and serious. Over the following week she did wake during the night and would cry for 2-3 min's and I would remind her that Baby Finn has the binkies so come give mommy a hug and close your eyes and that would comfort her enough to go back to sleep.
I'm so very happy that she's given them up, but I'm most happy that it was nearly 100% stress free for her. I found the 3rd binkie a few days ago but she found the 4th one today. She popped into the living room where I was and announced "Look mom, a binky!" and then popped it into her mouth. I was screaming inside my head "NOOOO". I went and got her an envelope and told her what a good job she did of finding it and that we should mail it to Finn. She wasn't thrilled about it but she did go along with it. When I tried to put the envelope up she insisted on having it back so I gave it back to her to hold onto sealed. I think Lilah was trying to get it from her or doing something to annoy her and she bit her pretty hard on the thumb. I have no tolerance for biting so she instantly lost the privilege of hanging onto the envelope and I put that away where she couldn't see it. She did a bit of crying and was made to tell her sister she was sorry, give a kiss and hug.....our standard routine for being mean to each other. I got her a pillow and put on Disney's Robin Hood and that was 13 hours ago....not one mention of the binky! I'm not sure if there is another one around the house or not, but I'm not worried anymore.
Now the next thing to tackle is the bottle, but I'm pretty sure that will not be any problem. We'll just have to give them to Baby Finn :)
