Everyone that knows our Hannah knows that she loves her Bunny and her thumb. Together. So much! If she is holding her Bunny then she is sucking her thumb. If she is sucking her thumb and holding her Bunny then she is happy. Both make her so happy. If she is sad she runs straight for Bunny. She couldn't go to sleep without Bunny. Maybe a year ago or so, we decided to have Hannah start putting Bunny in the doll cradle when she woke up in the morning or when she woke up from naps, so that she wouldn't suck her thumb during the day. We stuck to this pretty much, but many days Hannah would be up from her nap 45 minutes or so before I would realize she hadn't gone to put her Bunny up, but overall we pretty much stuck to the no Bunny while Hannah is awake rule. She adjusted just fine. When she went to her first dentist appointment last fall the dentist was soooo impressed with how much and how well she was talking for her to be a thumb sucker.
Let me just say that over the past 3 years I have heard countless stories of people telling me about themselves, their kids, friends or family members who sucked their thumb until they were 18 years old or older. One lady even told me she would catch herself doing it into her 30's. They all said it is such a hard habit to break. Now please know I am not saying anything bad about thumb suckers. I love my little thumb sucker with all my heart, but since it is such an addictive habit which can cause dental issues down the road, among other things, I wanted us to help my Hannah stop if I could (and sooner, rather than later).
I had a feeling that if we got rid of Bunny that she might stop sucking her thumb, but it broke my heart to even think about. Bunny was Hannah's little buddy. She looooved her. A few months ago we started talking to her about not sucking her thumb, just to see if we could possibly reason with her and get her to stop without taking Bunny away. We quickly realized it was a lost cause. During that time we asked her if she wanted to give her Bunny to baby Ressie, and she let us know that she did NOT. She would say "no....that's MY Bunny" and start crying! We were trying to warm her up to the idea, but it didn't seem to be helping so we decided to just not talk bout it anymore until we figured it was time to "give" Bunny away.
So, that's where we were for several weeks....no mention of taking Bunny away, no mention of not sucking the thumb. Bert and I were just waiting for the right time and dreading breaking her heart.
One morning I was about to dry my hair and Hannah came into my room out of the blue and said:
"Mommy, Claire don't suck her thumb do she?"
Me - "No, she doesn't."
Hannah "I know!! I can give my Bunny to Baby Ressie!!"
I just said that was a good idea and thought she would change her mind 2 minutes later, but when she walked into the kitchen to eat breakfast she was sooooo excited about giving her Bunny to baby Ressie and told her Daddy it was going to help Ressie stop crying. After 30 minutes of her being very excited about it, we decided we should probably go ahead and "send" Bunny to Ressie since this was probably about as good of an opportunity as we were going to get. Hannah was SO excited about it! So, as we were trying to get Emily ready for school that morning we decided we would put Bunny in an envelope and let her "mail" Bunny to Ressie.
She was soooo excited. I don't think she quite understood.
We were trying to act excited for her, but Bert and I were sad because we knew how sad she would be later.
Sweet Emily was stressed. She kept saying, "But Hannah will be so sad?!"
Bunny was in the mail and ready to go to Toccoa. Bert went and grabbed the envelope back out of the mailbox after I distracted Hannah inside.
She really was only sad at nap time and bed time, but the next two days were rough. That first nap after she "sent" Bunny to Ressie she just kept saying with tears in her eyes "but I don't have my Bunny....I neeeed my Bunny. Let's go get her. Ressie's not crying anymore. I neeeed my Bunny." It was pitiful and we were all down right sad. Emily even offered for Hannah to have her Bunny. Lots of extra snuggles those days.
Just a couple hours after the mailing of Bunny took place, Hannah came running into my room crying. She had gotten a bad paper cut while she was reading books, so a band-aid was definitely in order. The paper cut just so happened to be on the thumb that she sucked. I actually really think the band-aid that we had on her thumb for those first few days really helped her to not start sucking her thumb even without her Bunny.
Today will be 2 weeks since we "mailed" Bunny and I haven't seen her suck her thumb once. Gooooo Hannah! That first week we had her put a band-aid on her finger every time she went to bed (nap or bedtime) just to make sure she didn't suck her thumb. She would take it off as soon as she got up. She still asks for one some nights, and we just put one on.
At some point over the last two weeks she has become very attached to her Minnie. When she gets out of the bed Minnie is with her. Minnie is the one she is always holding when we check on her at night. I'm not even sure who gave us this Minne, but know it is well loved.
Before we mailed Bunny, Hannah took a nap everyday and fell asleep within 5 minutes. Now, it's taking her closer to 30 minutes to fall asleep and some days she won't even go to sleep. I haven't seen a big change in her night time schedule. She's always been my night owl and had a harder time going to sleep at night.
Hannah, I know it was no fun to give your Bunny to Ressie, but we are proud of you and we love you so much!!
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