Almost

So a few years ago, I was trying to become lucid in a dream I could get close, I would put my hands together and I could tell they were not normal like in waking life but I did not recognize that I was in a dream. I lost interest for a while but I tried again last night again. In my dream last night, I looked at my hands and I only had three fingers on each hand the my fingers were really large and kinda fuzzy but I did not recognize that it was a dream. Can anyone give me suggestions on what I can do to help me realize I am in a dream?

If you're able to carry the intention of performing a check into dreaming, that's good. The next thing you might like to look at improving if you're not already, is really being deliberate about your checking, regardless of whether it's in waking life or in dreaming. When you do a check, think about the situation you're in and think about what (if anything) seems off.

I had dreams like these a lot when I first started getting an interest in lucidity, where I had odd numbers of fingers or different colours for my hands and didn't realise that I was dreaming, largely because I did not then confirm it via another type of check or because I didn't think enough about my situation. That said, every night and every dream can be different and the amount of clarity of mind we have isn't always the same, so if you meet with this obstacle again despite better efforts, do take that into account too.

Lucidity is not common for me, though I can say that having at least two checks of different types does feel helpful when it comes to "confirming" the dream nature (or not) of what's being experienced. Personally for my day practise, I like to check solidity of hands by pushing fingers through the other palm and I like to also try reading something if it's present and double and triple checking what I read, otherwise I try breathing through a pinched nose, too. It sounds like putting your hands together is generally working okay for you, so I suppose try that and at least some other check that you like.

Are you performing these hands-based reality checks in waking life as well? Make sure you count your fingers in waking life, too.

If it's still not working then I would switch to a different reality check. You can try nose pinching, fly-jumping, or trying to put your fingers through the palm of your other hand. You can also try re-reading words or clocks.

Keep up the practice and don't give up. :)