The girls finally seemed ready to stop sucking their thumbs. What had always inspired them was the promise of a 'thumb party' with treats galore. Almost a year ago now (I think), I saw on a friends' blog how their little girl had stopped sucking her thumb. I showed the whole post to Sophia and this has been a little inspiration ever since. Especially the bucket of candy that CB received at a fun place in the States. I promised her I would do something like that when we had a thumb party. (thanks M family for inspiring us)
This is no small thing. She has done this every day of her 4.5 years almost and Bella does it even more. It is their comfort and always helps them go to sleep. So we knew this would be a week of virtually no sleep through nights. We prayed about it a lot. We set the date and said after one week we will do a party if you are successful. Sophia knew that 'her Baa Baa (little lamb blankie thing) makes her suck her thumb' so she knew she would give this up too, and she was willing. She wanted success.
We used Mavala stop, pictured above, and painted it on in the morning of day 1.
A few minutes after painting it on in the morning Sophia finally realized what it all meant and cried a little. I let them watch a video, which helped Sophia but not Bella. She tried to suck her thumb and cried at the taste...she is the one who would suck her thumb during the day.
I did not lay down with Bella for her nap, and she did not sleep. At night David stayed in the room with the girls until they slept. We put Baa Baa away and Sophia was fine with that, she said if she holds onto anything it will make her suck her thumb so she did not want anything else. We offered some pointers on how they could sleep, etc. and prayed a lot.
I think the first night we woke up once or twice with a cry. Then Sophia woke up EARLY, before six and could not go back to sleep, I tried laying down with her but she still could not go back to sleep
Day 2 and onward it just got better and better. The habit eventually breaking due to the grossness of the taste on their thumbs. (I put it on my fingers too to help them and me not bite my nails, it is gross, but then so is the habit). We only laid with them 2 nights and David took them to special breakfast out on the first night they did it alone.
Also, Bella has night terrors sometimes anyway so this was hard to distinguish why she would sometimes cry at night. Two of the nights Bella still sucked her thumb, with all the grossness attached. But after that she pretty much doesn't anymore.
By Friday morning things had gone really well and we were preparing for their party on Saturday. All of a sudden I knocked the bottle of Mavala stop off of my desk to spill and splatter on the tile below. I let out a wail! I scooped up as much as possible, but it is all goobly glop now. Sophia said, 'oh no, how will we stop sucking our thumbs....I guess we can use bandaids'. We still goop some out at night but it is virtually gone. We really really do not want to go backwards so we ordered more, but we won't get it for a while. Hopefully we can use what little we have and come up with other ways to keep the habit broken.
We have been really proud of the girls. Bella still cannot nap without someone with her, which is really hard for us, her thumb was her life for sleep. Sometimes I question if she is too young, but I do think she will get better at it. We will try to work with her on this.
Preparing for the 'thumb party' was lots of fun. We invited friends, and made cupcakes, I also started getting stuff for their 'bucket of candy' that had been promised. Including a 'huge lollipop that would take 10 days to eat', as Sophia said when she saw it. The problem with that lollipop we saw is that it was a ball filled with some lollipops and it cost 10 dollars, no way. I made my own.
By Friday evening, Daddy was not feeling well. Not at all. He had been their champion all week and strict with it all but so encouraging. Now he was having stomach problems. A sleepless night for us both and by morning he was worse and about 6 pounds lighter at least. He was quarantined and I was still going ahead with the days' plans. No putting off the celebration. I would go it alone. Here is what was planned for the day celebrating the milestone:
- Special breakfast: white chocolate peppermint scones
- morning video: Lady and the tramp
- snack: candy bucket
- 10:30: take all kids and one friend to the play place. That equals four kids and one adult, old hat for some people, but not me. But still I was feeling confident, a 6 y.o., 4, 2, and almost 1 y.o, good ages for going it alone.
- lunch with the four kids and me, stir fried rice at a local fave restaurant
- naps and then party prep
- we moved the party outside because of Daddy's sickness. He was feeling better by the afternoon but very tired
- 4 p.m. the 'end of our thumb sucking' party. All ex-pats came and it was fun fun.
Show me those thumbs girls!
yummy scones.
video time, where Bella would usually be found sucking her thumb. No more!
Sophia's goodies, my makeshift huge lollipop.
Bella's goodie bucket (her fave colors are orange and purple)
they really loved all the treats. I said no way will you eat this all at one time. The bowls were filled with skittles and gummies. They went back to watching their video munching, when I got side tracked doing other things, Sophia said: 'shouldn't you tell us to stop eating now'. Oh yeah. We packed away the leftovers for later.
We waited for Tobin to wake up, fed him, and then got Caleb from his house and off we went to the play place.
we love this play place because no one is ever there at 10:30, it has swings, it has a fast slide, it has a trampoline and a divided play area for younger ones. They had a blast.
I even let Tobin roam free, he had fun. It was a great outing.
They love Tobin....
Tobin was not cooperating with picture taking.
Stir fried rice. The owner's wife thought I was crazy with four kids. I told her my husband was sick, and she said I must be so tired....
Sophia made this play-dough cake earlier in the week for her party. Beneath, barely seen are the cupcakes the girls helped decorate.
I was so glad we moved this outside, it is perfect weather these days and the kids had so much fun, they could roam about while the adults talked.
I did not want to leave Tobin with David because we were not sure if he was contagious, so he came down with us and enjoyed watching everyone!
We know the battle for no thumb sucking is not over, but a huge part of it is and we are so proud of them and thankful to God for helping us get through it. Seems like a small thing, but a big milestone in their books! Congrats girls! Good job!
