Rule Breaker

 I made all these rules for myself before I had Brighton. Some of them were based on parenting books I read, or things I noticed other parents do that I didn't agree with, and some were just based on principles that Matt and I thought were important.

But good lord, I broke so many of them once I became a parent. Here are some of the ones I threw out and am laughing about now:

I will not co-sleep with my baby.

Although we technically never let Brighton sleep a full night in the bed with us, she spent a lot of her first 6 months snoozing in our bed for naps and in the early morning. It was easier for me, comfortable for her, and Matt loved it too. Even at 9 months, I bring her into bed with us every morning to nurse and cuddle and I cannot imagine changing that any time soon.

My boobs will never be used as a pacifier. 

I will admit that I massively judged women who did this, but when the crap hit the fan and Brighton was inconsolable I totally used my boobs as a pacifier. And guess what? It worked every single time. And still does... although she is much easier to console now that she is older and can be distracted and likes to cuddle.

Once the baby is old enough to be sleep trained, I will stop rocking her to sleep.

All those parenting books warn you that if you rock your baby to sleep they won't be able to learn how to fall asleep on their own. That's not true at all, at least for my child. Brighton can fall asleep on her own pretty easily, but I rock her to sleep most nights because it's the few minutes where she is calm in my arms and I can hug her tight and kiss her soft hair as much as I want. One day she won't let me rock her to sleep, so for now I relish these sweet moments when my baby girl lets me hold her for as long as I need.

Once my baby starts crawling, I will make sure my floors are clean and dirt free.

HAHAHHA. Pul-leeze. Honestly it would take a daily cleaning to keep our main living space clean given all the foot traffic and our pets. Ain't nobody got time for that! Brighton has been crawling for over a month and has probably ingested a few dog or cat  hairs, plus a little dirt already. I figure it will help build up her immune system and not have allergies later in life.

My baby will eat a healthy variety of foods.

I'm eating crow on this. Brighton is pretty willing to try anything once, but she is already showing a preference for the "fun" foods - sweet fruits, puffs, bagels, butter, cream cheese, yogurt and cookies. Yes, I have let her eat a cookie (just the cookie part - no chocolate chips or anything). Some days when she refuses every thing healthy I offer her, I just give in and give her more fruit, or something with butter on it so she'll get some calories in her.

Ok mamas what rules have you broken? I know I'm not alone in this!