So this morning I arrived  to work thinking that I have on very cute and coordinated outfit. I have on a red, brown, and white dress over a brown slip, brown knee boots, and little white cardigan with pearls to top it off.  Cute, right? Well, in theory, yes. Until I got to work and realized that I do not have on brown tights, but black ones. Yes, BLACK ones.  Nice.

I guess this is what I get for breaking baby rules.  Giuseppe and I have broken the major modern sleeping rule of putting baby to sleep alone in his crib and instead have a “family bed.”  We usually put Paolo down to sleep in his cradle, which we have situated at the foot of our bed.  BUT when he wakes up to nurse, we bring him in the bed with us, where he sleeps and nurses soundly until the next morning. Granting all of us a better night’s rest.

 

How does this relate to my mismatched stockings? Well, since the baby sleeps in our room, I do not turn on the lights when I get dressed because waking a sleeping bebe is one rule that I have learned to not break.  So I stumble around in the dark trying to find a matching outfit.  Which, unfortunately, does not always work out.

 

Is it worth it? Absolutely.

 

Especially since I have gone back to work, the night time nursing seems to be something that Paolino is demanding even more.  Since he was about 6 weeks old, he would wake up once during the night and then sometimes once very early in the morning to nurse.  Sometimes he would even sleep straight through the night.  When I went back to work, though, I noticed that he was waking up two to three times every night to nurse.  And the days that I am home with him, with the ever-ready supply of baby food, he goes back to one nightly nursing session.  I think he is trying to catch up on his nursing time during the week nights. (He’ll take the bottle, but definitely prefers to nurse with me.   Which I am happy to do, but the timing is not ideal for my beauty rest.) The days I have work, I am usually awake a lot longer at night as opposed to the days when I can stay home. So I arrive to work a little sleepy. Wearing unmatching outfits.

 

But I have a snuggly, happy baby and that makes everything worth it.  Even breaking the rules.

Brook Dell'Anna blogs at baby&sofia.