The Game Changer

I am reborn. I, who once felt downtrodden, am now uplifted. I, who once felt discouraged, now feels optimism. I, who once felt like my very life was being slowly sucked into a black hole with no hope of return, now feels on top of the world. For the past week, my daughter has gone to sleep without fussing, can usually be returned to a nap after awaking with a burp, actually takes decent naps, is sleeping longer periods at night, and will sometimes drift off to sleep when put down half awake. I owe this miraculous change in my child to one thing- the binky.
After two weeks of life, my daughter started fussing when it was time for her to sleep. During these times she required being held- preferably standing and bouncing. Nothing awful, no screaming, just tiring. We tried giving her a binky, but from the beginning she made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with it. This was communicated to us by gagging, coughing, looking insulted, and crying very loudly when we attempted to give her the binky. We figured the bright side was that we would not have to deal with weaning her at some future point. On top of this, she seemed to hate being in the car. On at last 3 occasions, instead of sleeping she would cry. And cry. And cry. When things started getting worse at six weeks instead of better, it began to wear on us. Wear at our very soul.
One night, my parents babysat for us so that my husband and I could go on a date and have a conversation that lasted longer than 5 minutes, and on a topic other than our children. This had not happened for about 4 weeks. Three hours have never been so refreshing. When we returned, we were witnesses to a miracle. My parents had somehow persuaded our baby to not only take the binky, but she was laying on a blanket on the floor peacefully drifting off to sleep. My jaw dropped to the floor. I don't care how they did it, but they did.
Since that day, the binky has continued to work its magic on our baby. Not only is she sleeping better at home, but she actually sleeps in the car! And I can say with true conviction that I'm a believer in the miracles that a binky can perform. The binky difference has been so big, we will gladly deal with weaning her if it means we can actually sleep, in our bed, and without an aching back. I don't pretend to ignore the fact that nothing stays the same for very long with a baby, but hope is alive.

Thank you binky. Thank you.