Six-ish months ago we made the decision it was time to start weaning Alexis off of her binky. I fallowed our dental insurance advice to poke holes in her existing binkies which would break the suction and reduce the sucking satisfaction Alexis received from them, allowing her to break her binky habit more gradually.

The first time Alexis put the modified binky into her mouth it slid right out. It started slipping out of her mouth at night time as well. I’d sneak into her room to find Alexis holding her binky in her hand rather than keeping it in her mouth. Things were going according to plan. Until…

Alexis learned to bite down and chew on her binkies to keep them in her mouth. She ended up chewing through a few binkis. We ended up replacing them twice, before it became clear that we needed to take the next step. Enter the Binky Fairy.

For the uninitiated, the Binky fairy works by having the child gather up all his/her binkies. At some point when the child isn’t looking the binky fairy turns the binkies into toys.

The Binky fairy helped Nicole kick her binky habit, though there were a few rough nights. Nicole was more attached to the binky than Alexis when it was time to give it up, and there were a couple nights where she’d wake up in the middle of the night having forgotten about trading it for toys.

I had learned from my mistakes. We sang the “bye, bye, binky” song (or at least the refrain) while she gathered up the her binkies and put them on the ottoman for the binky fairy. The fairy replaced them with a new bath time toy, and new night time snuggle buddy, and owl she named “Moo”. That way when it night time approached we could easily keep reinforcing the idea that she traded her binkies for fun new toys.

Despite all that she didn’t 100% grasp what was happening. She asked for her binky during bed time story and cried “Alexis needs it!” when I reminded her that they were all gone. Fortunately the tears were short lived. I reminded her about Moo and she was content to hold him during story time instead. I was surprised that she did not ask for a binky when she awoke in the middle of the night!

The next day Alexis asked for her binky again, and again I reminded her about Moo. There were no tears, but she held Moo to her face, frowned, said “don’t like Moo” and tried to hand him back to me.

“Aww, Moo likes you!” I said, wrapping Moo’s wings around her in a big hug. That did it. She grabbed tightly and lied down with a huge grin on her f ace. So far she’s been asking about the Binky, but other than that first few minutes of that first night there have been no tears, only questions.

Toddler sleep has historically been a bit of a challenge for us. Alexis was at the age where things all went to pot with Nicole, so we’ve been fearing another long bought of terrible sleeping.

Things weren’t horrible, but they weren’t great either. For the most part there where at least a few good nights a week, giving us hope to cling to. Then, Alexis was struck with a week long cold. We figured her sleep would return to normal after she kicked her cold. It didn’t. We thought maybe she just needed a few more days, than a week, maybe a couple of weeks. Alexis was now waking up 4-6 times a night for a week straight, and sometimes those ups would last for an hour. She was clearly trying to sleep, but when she didn’t fall right back asleep she’d call to us for another drink of water while she waited, followed by another call shortly later for a diaper change.

That lack of sleep is a killer. Because her night time sleep was so bad she was often tired and cranky during the day. Little things that usually didn’t bother her before would cause a crying fit. Being overtired affected her naps as well, and created a feedback loop of exhaustion. Of course mom and dad were frayed a little thin as well.

Recent experiences have lead us to believe that Alexis understands much more than she can communicate. We decided to give an OK to Wake Clock a try, even though she was sub 2. Let me tell you that OK to Wake clock is pure magic!

Alexis has a thing for bunnies right now. Her favorite stuffed animal is the bunny from Pets. She loved having her own bunny clock, just like big sister Nicole. We made a big deal out of saying good night to the bunny every night. (Alexis still says goodnight to it and not to me!) Every time she’d wake up in the middle of the night I’d gently remind her that the bunny was sleeping when I went in to check in on her, and we’d say goodnight to it again when I left the room.

It took a bit over a week before the number of night time wakings started to decrease. For two or three weeks she’d just wake up once a night. Then sometimes never. The past week she’s slept through the night in it’s entirety. This morning I heard her on the monitor calling “Bunny sleep, Bunny sleep!” which is her way of saying “Look at the bunny clock!” (It had just woken up.) With her night time sleep finally in a good state, she’s also napping better than she has in a long time. She’s back to her happier, more carefree self. She’s even eating her vegetables better.

Of course, this could just be confirmation bias again, but I’m optimistic.