For as much as I’m the eternal optimist, I also tend to be a worry-wart : hoping for the best, but freaking out about the (potential for the) worst. I blame my dad for this personality trait.

“It might snow on Thursday — we should cancel the weekend plans!”, he’d say if the weathermen (who were usually wrong) predicted a storm. In truth, it’s just that he is concerned about all things weather and safety related, and he’s passed down his neuroses to me, his first-born daughter.

For as impulsive as I can be when it comes to shopping and food, as a Libra, I tend to hem and haw before making a decision, seeing both sides to every story and often struggling the find the “right” answer.

Which brings me to today.

A friend and I were talking about our nursing/pumping schedules and I confessed how miserable I am with this 3 or 4 AM wake-up call to pump even though Maya is sleeping through the night (and has been STTN since 11 weeks).

She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8, but as it is, I can’t get in bed before 11 and then we always want to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and before you know it, it’s midnight … and three or hour hours later I’m up to make more milk.

“What would happen if you didn’t wake and pump? What if you just woke at 6 and pumped and skipped the middle of the night pump?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t make enough overnight for her morning feeding then!” I said — because in the past, the times I’ve overslept, I’ve only managed to get 3 instead of 4 ounces.

[THESE are the things that keep me up at night now, no joke!]

“So?”

Then I thought about it … she had a good point. OK, so what?

Because really, what’s the worst thing that could happen?!!

If I slept through, wouldn’t I just give her a bottle of formula in that case for her first feeding and then give her whatever I pumped at 6 for her first feeding at daycare (combined with what I made after she went to bed anyway?) It’s the same number of breastmilk and formula bottles … just possibly at different times!

Reframing it that way, it doesn’t sound like a crisis at all … in fact, it sounds kind of nice. I’d just pump at 11 PM before bed, and 6 when I wake up, eliminating the middle of the night pump.

Sometimes we just need friends to help us see what we see in a different light.