21 Months: The Sleep and Breastfeeding Update

So the update is that there's really no update. Not many things have changed as far as sleep and breastfeeding goes. And that's okay with me, but if it were up to society, it wouldn't be. Thankfully, I could give two shits what society thinks!

Cole's 21-month old birthday came and went. So this is a week late, and I don't care. I'm lucky to still be blogging after the month I had.

At 21 months old, Cole still nurses to sleep, takes a bottle in my arms at bedtime and with naps (at home), takes upwards of 2 hours to fall asleep at night and sometimes before naps, and still asks for Doo Doo around the clock when I am home. I am sure the parenting police would be on me if they knew about any of those. Luckily, I've learned the hard way to keep my mouth shut and to not give in to self-doubt and ask others if their kids did the same. Because my kid is not their kid, so there.

One day last week, when I came home from work and he had not napped for Dada during the day, he shouted with glee when I got home. At first, I thought it was because he had missed me so much. But no. He had missed Doo Doo that much. He quickly informed me of this with a simple "Finish the Doo Doo,"  latched on, and in less than 5 minutes, fell sound asleep. I literally could not wake him up. It was like Cole had transformed from a 21-month old to a one-month old in the span of 5 minutes. Curled up sound asleep at my breast.

Have I talked about the origin of the strange request to "Finish the Doo Doo" ? He used to just ask for Doo Doo (which he still does from time to time) but one day, we were in his bedroom, and I was in a not-so-giving mood and had probably just nursed Cole a half-hour prior, but he said he wanted to "finish" the Doo Doo and that made sense in my warped mind. I felt kind of bad, like he started something and didn't get the chance to finish it. I didn't want to deny him the chance to finish it. Plus I thought it meant he'd nurse for just a few minutes.  So I let him. And I was wrong.

I don't mind the breastfeeding, but I'm a one-boob operation here and sometimes that one boob hurts a lot after a nursing session. I also don't mind the taking-a-year-and-a-day to fall asleep at night. It used to bother me when Dada was working full-time, because I was thinking to myself - gee I wish I could work on my computer instead of sitting here trying to get this kid to fall asleep. Or I wish I could be spending quality time with Dada. Now that we don't have as much time together, it's usually the latter. But now? For some reason, being the only other person in the house, I know it's my job, so I grin and bear it and sometimes it's downright amusing (when it's not maddening) watching this champion sleep fighter fight his way into the world of dreams.

The following are a couple things I must document for the purposes of putting this blog into a book at the end of Cole's second year (only 3 more months to go!!).

1. Cole loves to read. His current loves are: Curious George, Thomas the Train, an artsy book called One Boy, an old book from the 1960s called Dandelion, and a library book called Bathwater's Hot. He really gets into the stories, and since we read them repeatedly he knows certain lines. For instance, in Curious George (it's actually a collection of 8 Curious George stories), the author often asks "Could he help?" and Cole says this just when we're getting to that part. So freaking cute. He knows the titles of books and certain characters by name. Reading with him has become a real pleasure. The one thing I've tried unsuccessfully is to get him into Dr. Seuss. He appeases me by listening politely for no longer than a minute, but then usually cuts me off with, "I don' like it?!"

2. Music really has a way of lulling Cole to sleep. I'm no singer, but I try my best. Dada mainly hums.
I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Brahm's Lullaby," parts of "Amazing Grace," and portions of "The Greatest Love of All." His favorite song of all time is Jewel's version of "Twinkle Twinkle." Her voice is so angelic and she sings the entire song (who knew there was more than one stanza?! It's a beautiful version, and when I play it in the car on our way home from school, he's entranced by the time we get home. Thanks to my friend Lori for the CD.

And guess what, my dear readers? Cole's birth story made it onto a cool blog I submitted to over the summer. Check out: Cole was born waving hello if you haven't read his birth story on this here blog already.

Since I will be inundating you with pictures over the next week with a lot of carefully-crafted but scheduled-ahead-of-time posts, here is my favorite 21-month picture. We think it's pretty damn cute.

Cole's 18 month check-up  --  3 months late!