1,2,3,4 Aubrey declares a thumb war...

and WINS!!!! Just as soon as Aubrey could get her thumb to her mouth (at about 3 months old) she ditched the paci and became a thumb sucker. It has been a HUGE part of her life. When she gets nervous, when she's tired, when she's bored... the thumb comes to the rescue. At her first dentist appointment when she was 3, the Dr. told her she needed to stop by the time she turns 5. Whew, she thought, I've got some time (and I thought the same thing too). Next thing you know, she's 4 and back for another check-up in Feb. Again, he tells her she needs to stop before she's 5. He gave me some advice on how to make it happen. He said of all the methods he's seen over the years (and he's been in practice a while since he was my childhood dentist), the reward system has worked best. Great, I thought. Here we go again. The reward chart for potty training lasted about 2 days before she lost interest, and it was months before she was really potty trained. So, I decided not to get worked up about it and not worry about it for a little longer. On the car ride home that day, she said she wanted to earn some tokens like the Dr. had mentioned and work towards getting ice cream. Ok, I thought. I'll go with it, but I knew we had a long road ahead.

I made her a thumb chart and we worked on short goals to earn check marks (she is NOT a fan of stickers). If she could ride to school without sucking her thumb, she earned a mark. If she watched a show without doing it, she earned another. Once she earned ten, she got to go to Amy's Ice Cream. The dentist told me to let her pick the ultimate prize for when she stops sucking her thumb altogether. Her choice... a rolling suitcase. Whew, at least it wasn't Disney World.

Well, about 3 days later she had earned 10 and got her ice cream. But, as I suspected, it slowed quite a bit after the first reward. To make a long story short, it took her about 6 months to earn 4 ice cream cones. Mom got lazy about reminding her, and she would choose not to earn one in order to suck her thumb. Well, about 2 weeks ago, we were randomly talking about it in the car. I can't even recall the exact conversation because I didn't really think much of it. Anyway, I think she asked when she could get her suitcase (at one point in the last few months she said "oh well, it's too hard, but Santa will bring it to me.") HA! I told her when she stopped sucking her thumb, we would go get it.

So, right there in the car, she said "OK, I'm done. Let's go get my suitcase now." I explained that we had to see how she did, and if she could make it a week, we'd go get it. Sure enough, she did it! I will admit, she had been doing it less and less during the day, but at night, it was vital to her sleep and I knew that would be the biggest hurdle. Once she did it that first night, I think she was surprised and very proud. Once she knew she could do it, it wasn't nearly as daunting.

So, she and I went to the store to buy her suitcase. She was beaming and just thrilled to finally get her prize (it still cracks me up that she chose a suitcase... hopefully that doesn't mean she's looking to runaway???) She has wanted to take it everywhere with us and tell anyone who will listen, "I stopped sucking my thumb all the time." Well, the night after we got the suitcase, she was having a hard time falling asleep (a trend that has been getting worse since the thumb went away). I kept checking on her, and when I finally found her sleeping, she had the thumb in her mouth. ARRGHHHHH. I yanked that thing out, which was not easy, and hoped that would be the end of it. I have no idea if she put it in before or after she fell asleep, but I assumed she had done it because she knew she already had her prize. Nice. What faith I have, right? I need to lighten up. We talked about it the next day and I told her that I know it's hard, but if she did it again, the suitcase would go away until she stopped again. Since then I have only caught her one more time, and I know she was doing it in her sleep, so I didn't even mention it.

I think it's safe to say we are thumb free now. I am still in denial. I just can't believe how "easy" it was. Just when I think I have her figured about, she surprises me. I think I have finally learned that she will do things on her time, and I cannot force the issue. The things I have been most relaxed about with her (funnily enough because I thought they would be so hard) have gone so well. Like her wearing glasses and when she switched to a big girl bed. So, it looks like I'm the one who has the most to learn. Hmmm. That said, we are certainly feeling the effects of this HUGE change. Her behavior has been pretty bad lately and her sleeping has suffered, but I know that will get better with time.

Bye bye Mr. thumb. She loved you very much and we thank you for soothing her these last 4 and a half years. We are so proud of you Aubrey!!!!

Minutes old, she finds it briefly

look out world, here she comes!