Bye-bye Binky ???

Let me just start this tale by saying that I know that I should have taken away his binky (paci, pacifier, sucky, whatever you call it) a long time ago.  In fact we probably should have never even given it to him since he didn't really take to it until he was about 3 or 4 months old; but my God did the child learn to love that damn thing.  He would take it all day every day if I would let him, he even learned a way of holding it to the side of his mouth to talk around it and I've seen him hold it in his mouth during a sneeze.  They were the best of friends, which I think is why the last 3 weeks have been (mostly) pure hell.

I decided to take away the binky about 3 weeks ago now and for the first week we were golden.  The first night he asked for it and cried, but after that it wasn't mentioned again and he was going to bed like normal - awake and calming himself down into sleep.  Then the flip switched.  I don't know what happened but the child must have figured out that the binky was gone for good.  He would scream, cry, bang his head, and thrash around.  This was at nap time and bed time too.  I have actually been able to lift more weight at the gym and my arms are looking more toned and I didn't know why; then it dawned on me, having a WWE wrestling match with a 30 pound toddler for 30 minutes twice a day can build up some serious muscle.

I thought the worst of it was over, we were going to get through it and get him back to a normal bedtime and nap time routine.  Then came the after nap screaming fits.  I don't think I can effectively put into words how freakin insane these have been.  They have brought me to tears, made me yell (which in turn brought me to even more tears because I felt like a mean mommy), and lasted for two weeks now.  Mason will wake up after about 40 - 60 minutes of sleep, which isn't enough, and scream, yell, and thrash for an average of 30 minutes.  He doesn't want to rock, lay down, sit on the couch, or even eat.  It is draining.  I have managed to get the fits down to about 5-10 minutes but they still go on every day.  He is waking up in a fit of rage with no binky to calm him and has an attack.

Hopefully the worst of it is over and we can return to normal.  If I had known it would be like this I might have waited, but then he would end up one of those 5 year old kids walking into Kindergarten with a binky hanging out of his mouth.  Lesson of the day, listen to ALL of the books and Dr.'s that say take away the binky by a year or before, they may just know what they are talking about.