We Danced the No-Thumbguard Dance Tonight

Cal's ThumbGuard and Wristband #30

Five years of Cal sucking his thumb came to an official end yesterday morning when Cal successfully completed his 30^th consecutive night of wearing his ThumbGuard throughout the night.  Waking up with his left thumb dry and still safely nestled in the ThumbGuard was Cal’s proof that he did not suck his thumb at any time during the night, the time of day most difficult for him to stop.

We’re so stinkin’ proud of him.  I don’t know how many times we had tried this in the past.  For awhile, we thought we’d be members of the small, unsuccessful group of ThumbGuard users, the 1% who had stories of failure.  Everytime we put the ThumbGuard on him, he either fought it or wrangled his thumb out of the contraption.  We even tried a 30-day chart with a bike his prize at the end as motivation.  It didn’t work (and Santa brought him a bike this past  Christmas). The problem was, he didn’t want to stop.  No matter how much we wanted him not to suck his thumb and no matter how much we explained why (uh, I could put my pinky through the front of his clenched teeth), he just didn’t want to stop.

This time around, he wanted to stop.  There was nothing really remarkable about the time.  I think we just met the perfect storm of influence.  He turned five.  His doctor really impressed on him the importance of stopping his thumb sucking immediately.  He had a dentist appointment where he wanted to report some success in stopping.  Maybe there were others.

The night of his influential doctor’s appointment, we re-capped for his dad how that visit went, and Cal was completely engaged in the part about no thumbsucking.  So Dan and I jumped on that.  I don’t know if Dan suggested it first or if Cal asked him, but both were in agreement that ThumbGuard was going on his thumb that night.  And it did.  No fights.  No tears.  No yanking his thumb out.  Cal was committed.  A streak was in its infancy.

The ThumbGuard came with many colored, one-time-use wristbands, and it was Cal’s choice each night which color wristband to use.  He always had an opinion about the color and always thought through which one he wanted that night.  Early in the 30 days he told me that he picked blue because it was my favorite color.  Aw, so thoughtful.  Most often (probably 95% of the time), Dan put the ThumbGuard on him, and Cal was most comfortable with this.  The two or three times I put it on, Cal asked me as he glared at my hands working the ThumbGuard, “do you know how to do it?”  As if.  The first time I didn’t; the second and third I did.  Once Dan’s cousin Julie was tasked with putting it on.  After a Cal-induced frantic search for the ThumbGuard and wristbands the night during the streak when she was sitting for us, Julie eventually found it and figured out how to put it on.  Bullet dodged.

There was a lot of lead up to the last day.  “Cal, how many days in a row has it been?” we’d ask each day the week leading up to day 30.  “Cal, just five more days,” we reminded him, excited with anticipation, five days before day 30… then four days before… then three… He always knew how many days in a row he had not sucked his thumb and how many days were left.

The night of St. Patrick’s Day was number 30.  He woke up the next morning and shuffled immediately into our room for ThumbGuard removal.  He acted as if it was any ordinary de-ThumbGuard morning.  Remove ThumbGuard, go get dressed for school.  I was really tired, but I mustered a “Cal, you did it! I’m so proud of you!” as I cut off his wristband for the last time, and I don’t think he even responded.

Despite all of the encouragement and anticipation of number 30, Cal really has no idea how big this feat is.  Though Cal would have let us, we couldn’t leave it at a high-five and "we're so proud of you."  So to celebrate, after work/school yesterday we first went to Learning Express down the street from us where he picked out a couple of dinosaur figures, his choice given a $20 price range, to add to his collection.  We then went to Wendy’s, a favorite of Cal’s, for a not-so-healthy dinner followed by a chocolate-vanilla combo Frosty.

When we got home, we were supposed to do a “No ThumbGuard Dance” before going to bed.  I’m not sure what went wrong, but Cal wasn’t in the mood and told Dan he didn’t want to read books and didn’t want to dance; so we deferred it to the morning.  It didn’t happen this morning, either, despite my best efforts – Ella and I found ourselves dancing the “No ThumbGuard Dance” to Flogging Molly’s “Drunken Lullabies” without Cal or with Cal complaining about how loud the music was.  So I cut it short and took the kids to school.  It was just as well – Dan wasn’t there to dance with us.

But tonight... tonight we all gathered in Cal’s room and danced the “No ThumbGuard Dance” to that same Flogging Molly song, which will now be known as the “No ThumbGuard” song.  It was great.  The four of us no-ThumbGuard danced happily for 3 minutes and 45 seconds as acknowledgement and celebration of Cal’s accomplishment.  For once, it was just as I had imagined it.  It was perfect.