The waiting game

The thing about having a tiny little baby is that sometimes … nothing happens.

Before I had kids, one of my favorite friends told me I’d have a lot of free time in the early months of becoming a parent. Because, as she said, “Babies just sleep. They sleep and sleep and sleep.”

She was right. For the first three months of her life, Chloe did a good job at sleeping virtually all the time.

She’s gradually moving into a stage where she eats breakfast, stays awake for three hours, eats brunch, sleeps for three hours, eats lunch, stays awake for three hours, eats again, and then sleeps.

I love having the longer stretches of time with her. It gives us more moments to interact, and she’s just now starting to bat at toys and rattles for the first time.

But the truth is, a lot of this baby-raising gig involves waiting around. Waiting for her to wake up … waiting for her next milestone … waiting for her to grow up and become her own person.

I keep reminding myself everything will pass in the blink of an eye. I know it’s true, but in the meantime, I’m actually kind of enjoying waiting. When something finally does happen, it’s that much more exciting and precious and—of course—well worth the wait!