It will be ok!

Last weekend I once again found myself fretting about how long and how frequent Lena's naps were.  Lines from books I had read about sleep continuously marched through my head "Sleep is important for brain development" " Don't keep a baby up any longer than 2 hours because she can't handle it" " you will need to sleep train her if she is waking up more than 3 times a night at this age", and on and on it went.  Needless to say I was not having a very fun weekend!  Then... an Abba song started playing on the Pandora station we were listening to and my stressful sleep thoughts were replaced with happy childhood memories of dancing to Abba records in my parents living room.  (Mom is a big Abba fan!)  I realized that I turned out ok even if mom never worried that I had been awake for more than 2 hours.  (did you mom?)  Later that day I thought, what if I had never read a book about babies and sleep?  Would my maternal instincts kick in and would I figure it out on my own?  Would I know that I should let her sleep when she is tired?  Would I be happy that she took a nap at all and not worry about where, when and how long? Would this parenting thing become just a little less stressful?  Maybe my Type A self would be able to relax a little more and stop looking at the clock, and instead be able to fully enjoy the dance party in our living room! 

This post is to remind myself that I need to keep things in perspective.