First Time Away

This weekend marked my first time away from my sweet angel baby girl Luna. Yes, it was my first time away from my child.  First time of being away from her for over 5 hours!  I had not left her yet overnight and luckily my sweet husband was going to watch her for me so I could get a little R & R with some girl friends.

I was going to miss this sweet face, that's for sure!

I definitely think it is a good thing for parents to spend some time away from their children, because they need to get used to being with other people.  But I think it's best to do it in baby steps because young babies have the whole attachment thing to process, but being gone here and there helps them get used to spending time away. It's good for the child and good for the parents too.

The tricky part for me this past weekend was that I am still breastfeeding, AND that my child still wakes up once or twice to nurse back to sleep.  Now that she is 12 months old, I nurse her at breakfast, lunch and dinner so it's not an every 2-3 hour thing that it used to be.  But with the night feedings, it kind of makes things tricky.  So we tried a few trial runs before the big night away.

Did it work?  Not so much.  My husband tried to give her a bottle when she woke up at night, but she refused.  Now-my child can go to sleep on her own awake, and wakes up here and there on her own throughout the night and goes back to sleep on her own. BUT, when she is standing up in her crib crying, that is when I know she is hungry and after I nurse her, she goes back to sleep for hours.  I know you think she might just be wanting comfort right?  But I swear she is still hungry.

So since my child was not taking a bottle from her daddy, I was scared to leave her one night alone. But everyone told me that if she was really hungry, she would take the bottle or sippy cup from him.  It would just mean a LONG night for my husband :)

So off I went and drove out to meet the girls.  At first was hard, but once I was driving alone, it was nice. I felt so much freedom!  It was nice to be out for a drive alone. But it was kind of strange to think I was driving the opposite direction away from Dallas, away from my child. But knowing it was only 45 minutes away made me feel better.

Once I arrived it was pure heaven!  Relaxing with some girlfriends who are also all mothers to young toddlers, was amazing.  We were having a play date with ourselves, and it was awesome :)

After a fun night with the ladies, it was time to hit the sack.  Going to bed without having to put my child to sleep was crazy and I all of a sudden forgot what it was like to just take care of one person.  And then I had to breastpump, joy joy, but glad to get it out of the way and off to bed.

Of course I could not fall asleep. As tired as I was, I was restless and started worrying about my child. I also think because it was my first night away and looking forward to a real night's sleep, I jinxed myself.

Apparently I finally did fall asleep because then I awoke worried, wondered if my snoring, hard sleeping husband had heard the night monitor or slept through it. Luckily he texted me bright and early that everything was good and she was eating breakfast.

Ahhh, sigh of relief.  I got up all excited it worked and started making breakfast.  Was I able to sleep in? Nope. Could not sleep past 8am. Plus, I was super engorged and had to pump.  Have I mentioned before how much pumping is not fun?  The only thing I can compare it to is like having to go to the bathroom and urinate, but not completely emptying it- I know, gross comparison, but it's true.  Pumping works but I just don't feel the engorgement 'relief' when your baby actually does it.

As I was chopping fruit for breakfast, I realized I did not have to prepare a meal for my baby.  She is normally super hungry at breakfast and I am scrambling to get her food prepared as she is crying and pulling on me.  It was so nice to not have to worry about anyone else.

So after our yummy breakfast of fruit, migas, cinnamon rolls, hashbrown casserole, biscuits, mimosas and some more R and R with the girls, I headed out to get back home at 11:30am. Of course everyone else left later at 4pm, but I needed to breastfeed and could not bare to pump again, plus my hubby and I had a much needed date night lined up.  Can you believe we had not seen a movie in 4 months!

I was also secretly anxious to get back to my little girl. I guess I have to do time away in baby steps.  Next time I think I will definitely last longer, and hopefully not be breastfeeding as much and have to pump!  I am sooo looking forward to the next girls trip or hubby and wife night away time.

So the overall outcome?  Overnight success!  Can't wait to do it again :0