Don't sweat it...

Babies.

Oh, babies.

Just when you think you're starting to get them figured out, they change things up on you.

You want to know what I've learned over the last five months? I've learned that worrying is wasted on babies. A baby is going to do what a baby is going to do, and you're just along for the ride. Well, the ride and the 24 hour days of feedings, cleanings, and cuddlings.

I've been complaining about how Brigid never naps. I worried that she wasn't getting the sleep she needed during the day, even though she was basically sleeping 10 hours a night (Which isn't normal? Or is normal? Or is sometimes normal and sometimes not? I still honestly have no idea what is or isn't expected from a baby. Everything I read says something different. And I'm starting to think that every baby might be unique, and all of the experts are full of it...). But, guess what? She's starting to get herself on something of a real, honest to goodness nap "schedule"* now. Yay!

Of course, this means she's back to waking up again at 4am off and on, but why bother with the details?

Which brings me to another case of worrying for no reason...

Our surefire method of getting Brigid back to sleep when she'd wake in the middle of the night was the pacifier. Brigid loved her pacifier. It calmed her down when she was upset. It served as a temporary bottle placeholder when she was hungry, and we were trying to get her formula put together. It taught her to put herself to sleep. And, I was already beginning to worry about how I was going to break her of the habit down the road. But now, all of a sudden, she's so over it! She's decided her thumb is the way to go, being so much more convenient than a pacifier and all. You know, since it's attached to her and always available. And she got there all on her own. She's a smart one, that kid!

So in the span of a week, she's started napping on a little more of a consistent basis, and she's broken herself of a pacifier habit. We are knocking out issues left and right these days! Now all I have to worry about is how to break her of a thumb sucking habit in the future.

Worrying may be useless, but it I'm starting to think it's still never going to stop.


*See those quotation marks? See what I did there? Basically, I'm calling it a schedule, even though it means she goes down in her crib sometime between 9am and noon, for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, and then she goes down again between 1:30pm and 3pm, for another 30 minutes to an hour.