I'm a mom of 3 amazing children myself, ages 9, 6 and 3. I too had trouble with my now 9 year old giving up the baba at 2 1/2. My sister in law suggested just making all the babas disappear, and just show him that they were all gone. So I snuck home one day on my lunch break and packed all the babas in a bag and hid them in the trunk of my car. That night when he was convulsing for his baba at bedtime, I took him to the cupboard where the babas used to be and showed him that they were all gone. I then gave him a sippy cup, let him drink his milk then we brushed his teeth and put him to bed. It only took about 3 days of this routine at night and babas were a thing of the past. Just taking away the option seemed to work best for us. I used this exact same method with both of my girls and it took even less time with them.
Of course, I'm still dealing with a 3 1/2 year old who won't give up her binky (pacifier). Anyone want to offer any advice on that , I'm all ears.
Good luck Leah. I know exactly how you're feeling, there's nothing like denying your baby something that makes them feel secure. We tried to get rid of the binky so many times and I just couldn't listen to her cry so I finally gave in. I, too was the person that before I had children was never going to have any of these issues. It's amazing what having your own child does to your entire outlook on childrearing.

Re the "binky". I can honestly say that I hate pacifiers when used by older children. They're okay for an infant, especially if they need to have the sucking instinct made stronger. Allowing a child to become addicted to anything, that includes blankets, pacifiers, a special toy, and anything else that comes to be a required adjunct to their daily routing, is a huge mistake. I know parents who have had to drive 20 miles in a blinding blizzard because they forgot to pack a certain item to which the child is unalterably addicted. I use the word "addicted" because that's what it is. Habit becomes addiction and the child cannot function if not holding, sucking, twirling, whatever-ing, that particular item. I have a grandchild who is now 13 and her parents don't see a thing wrong with her dragging around a ratty, torn, totally useless blanket that she began to cling onto when she was about a year old. I warned them at the time, "don't let her become attached to that thing, change blankets and don't let her use only one". The response was "it can't hurt anything, she'll just get tired of it". Now, even when the child goes for a sleepover, if the parents go on vacation, she HAS TO HAVE THAT BLASTED BLANKET. Same goes for pacifiers. They become addicted to sucking on that darned thing, their teeth get pulled forward and many of them even develop speech impediments from trying to "talk around" the dumb pacifier. Pacifiers have their place but not for children over the age of a few months to a year. Parents use them as stoppers to shove into the mouth of a child who is fussing. Bad bad bad.