No Trick Pony

I have gone from being a one trick pony to a no trick pony. At least I can still put my hair in a ponytail? Just give me something, people.

Not nursing has taken my patience away.

Ryan has always been a nursing fiend. For the first six months of his life he nursed every hour and a half, and that was start to start. Once he started saying words, I would be greeted in the morning with, "Boooooooo!" I don't think I have to translate that one. 

I nursed him to sleep every night that I was around which was every night except for our trip to Ireland (still need to finish recapping!). I loved nursing him to sleep, but it wasn't done because I thought he would be emotionally scarred if I didn't. 

It just worked. 

The times when I would try to leave him "drowsy, but awake," as many people say, he would cry and yell and definitely not fall asleep no matter how long. Then there were the times when I would attempt to pat his plump bum to sleep. Pat, pat, pat at the same, steady, perfect rhythm for five minutes, think I was in the clear and switch hands, nope! Baby awake! 

The boy loved the booooo's. And I loved that it worked.

Then in April and May, he nursed less frequently since he was so active when we were outside, got a cold and nursed even less because of his congestion, I was pregnant and then he and Chris went away for five days. I couldn't pump more than a couple drops the whole five days! It was the perfect storm to bring on a milk drought. And there went my one trick in my bag of parenting tricks. 

Now when I put him to bed at a normal hour, bedtime drags on and on no matter how active he was during the day. I start chanting, "Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep," out loud. What a lullaby, Mama! Better send that one to Mother Goose. Probably every other night, I throw up my hands, go downstairs and send Chris up to put him to sleep...which he does in less than five minutes, of course. 

So we are having some slight bedtime bumps in the road to sleep. Of course, I am extremely thankful to even have the chance to choose to lie down with him at bedtime, thankful for him and thankful for Chris to take over and I'm thankful for a blog to let out my temporary frustration and then just move on. Now as I type this, I am struck with the obvious fact that he will always fall asleep...eventually. Hopefully, eventually, I can get some patience back because bedtime problems with one toddler who sleeps through the night are not really problems in the grand scheme of things. 

Off to go perfect my ponytail making.

Tossing, Turning and Smushing Faces

It seems fitting that since Ryan doesn't sleep sweetly that he wouldn't fall asleep sweetly either. We plop down on the bed, and he points at the fire while shouting, "Hot! Hot!" then signs for milk. We nurse for a bit. He decides he'd rather crawl all over me so that ensues for a few tickle-filled moments. Nurse again. Then he seems to remember all of my requests from throughout the day for baby kisses that normally go unanswered and smushes his face against mine over and over while slobbering and giggling. The flatter the nose, the better he seems to think. Smush, smush, smush. Time to nurse. Each blink grows longer and the pace of his nursing slows. Not asleep yet. Nope, he has to toss and turn with his eyes closed. I think he gets extra points if he hits me in the face since he is doing this behind shut-eyes and all. He stirs, his eyes peek open, settles down after one last toss and reaches for one last nurse until the last blink never stops.

I realized last night as he was smushing his face against mine, drool and all, that I wanted to remember his crazy falling asleep routine. And so I wrote it down.