the first night away

The nights of going to late dinners and drinking for the hell of it are fond, distant memories. Who am I kidding? The nights of simply deciding at the very last second on a Saturday night to go to the movies are behind us. I never thought a simple plan like dinner and a movie would sound so exciting until we became parents.

When you have a new baby, and you have no family within a flight's distance, you are forced to make the best of your circumstances. If you are ready to get out of the house for dinner because wearing your pj's at every meal is no longer acceptable, then your only option is to take the baby where ever you want to go. When they are little it's really no big deal. The baby pretty much sleeps through the meal so it's virtually like you're on a romantic date with your husband. Who am I kidding again? Bottom line is... date night is only date night if you can leave the baby for the ENTIRE night with grandma and grandpa.

Last weekend my husband and I experienced our first full night away from Sadie. Although it was tough leaving her for the entire night, I think I adjusted pretty well and managed to enjoy myself. A friend's wedding brought us to DC for the weekend. Before Sadie was even born we planned on attending and having my parents babysit for the night so we could stay at a hotel. Planning this so far in advance, it was hard to even imagine having a baby at all. Then, the weekend arrived and it was impossible to imagine leaving her for a whole night.

I took advantage of the wedding completely. I decided I deserved some pampering and spent the day getting a mani/pedi and my hair blown out. I felt like a new woman. I can count on one hand the number of times my hair has been straight and done since Sadie was born. I forgot how amazing it feels. I figured since all of my beautifying was completed before we arrived downtown that getting ready would be so easy. There must just be something about being a new mom that makes everything more complicated. Even when the baby is not with you there is always going to be something that makes you late or frazzled.

The getting ready process started with a minor injury. I'll try and be as nonspecific as possible since it was pretty gory. Long story short, I sliced my finger on my razor. It was mildly like a slasher movie. The pain was bearable, but it totally cut into my dressing process. About that...my husband thought it was crazy that I brought 3 dresses to the hotel, but most woman out there (especially newmies) know that a. you have to have options and b. you never know what you are going to look like in formal wear with your post prego body. Due to the minor finger ailment I went with the dress that I envisioned in my head. I achieved the look I was going for, but I definitely didn't account for a few things. First, the dress was very form-fitting and there wouldn't be much room once I ate (and I was starving!). Second, I am still breast feeding and a few hours with no feeding or pumping and my little pancakes would soon be watermelons.

This was a pre-pregnancy dress and I definitely didn't have room for my new jugs. By the end of the night I could barely move in the dress and my boobs weren't the only things that felt like they were going to explode. Oh yeah, definitely negative points for breast feeding when you have a formal event to attend for the night. No one should ever have to worry that they might leak through their dress. Wearing black is encouraged!

A decent amount of wine helped with any feelings of insecurity about my looks, but I still had to make the normal phone calls to check in on our sitters, Gammy and Pops. After feeling pretty confident that they had everything under control, I continued to 'let go' as much as I possibly could. It wasn't until I received a phone call from Gammy when my heart stopped. When I answered my mom immediately said, 'the monitor is beeping and flashing red.' I calmly said, 'is Sadie crying?' 'No, she's sound asleep,' said Gammy. I instructed her that the monitor must not be charging properly and is probably running out of battery. Insisting that she had the monitor plugged in and that couldn't be the issue, we hung up as there was not much I could do from the wedding. From this conversation, my husband and I concluded that the grandparents will never understand the change in technology, but the babies haven't changed. So, we continued to drink...

As we arrived back at the hotel the entire wedding party was planning what bar they would all meet at once they changed. Michael and I gave each other the eye in the elevator. We were both thinking the same thing...pjs and a full night of sleep without waking up for a baby! There was no way these parents were partying any longer. The cool Katie and Michael from years past would have thought we were so lame, but new parents reading this can totally relate. Sleep is so much more important these days than a few more drinks. In the last 4 and a half months I haven't slept without something to wake up to in the morning. It was so freeing, but those multiple glasses of wine did not make for a good night sleep. I woke up mildly hungover and still tired! Unfortunately hotels have a check out time and the clock was running out for our time alone. It was like we were Cinderella and it was midnight. Poof! Back to being parents.

Although it all went by so fast, arriving home is the most rewarding part. Just when you want to cry because your head hurts so much, you get to see your baby again and all of the pain goes away. Sadie is at this incredible age that when you walk into the room her whole face lights up. It makes you forget how tired and grumpy you really feel. Actually, babies are very similar to wine. They are able to completely alter your mood and they both often make you feel hungover. Wow, my life has totally changed. Comparing babies to wine. Gotta love being a newmie!

I learned a few lessons from this experience:

1. Breast feeding is getting old. "Pumping and dumping" is no way to end a romantic night in a hotel room with your husband. Not to mention that all that wine you just consumed made your milk completely useless. Extra points for formula.

2. Gammy and Pops raised me and I turned out pretty good. So what if they can't figure out a modern day monitor. They're learning fast. I've already got them Skyping...HUGE STEP.

3. Trying to squeeze into a dress that you bought about 7 years ago for a sorority formal only 4 months after you've had a baby is probably not a good idea. That's why the empire waist was invented!

4. Last and most important...if you plan on leaving your little one for the entire night remember that the hangover doesn't disappear the next day and neither does the baby. Instead of partying like you did in college, try to do something that you never get to do now...SLEEP!

everybody poops!

My mother/daughter relationship with Sadie started when she pooped in me sometime before labor. Apparently this is pretty common (1 in 4 babies does it), but they're never really sure why it happens. Although it made the labor process a little more traumatic than normal, my husband and I knew she was a real Sugar-Scheiner by starting life off with a good poop.

My newmie motto is that 'everyday is better when you start it off with a poop!' Whenever Sadie is fussy and I know she hasn't gone I always tell her that if she would just poop in the morning the day would be so much better. You probably think I'm one of those crazy people that constantly talks about pooping. Ok, I kind of am, but who isn't, right? Why are people so obsessed with pooping? As if we don't have enough to worry about with our own bowel movements, now we are strangely concerned with our children's.

I remember in Sadie's first few weeks she was pooping about 10 times a day! This is very normal. You go to the pediatrician and their first question is always, 'is she having a good amount of wets and poops?' Good amount? The kid is going every 5 minutes. I would say that's pretty incredible, wouldn't you? I guess now that her digestive system is maturing her pooping seems to be slowing down. So slow I often wonder how such a tiny little girl can consume all that milk and not completely explode.

Did someone say explode? Now, that brings me to the messiest part. Newborns poops are always liquid. If it's a breast fed baby the poop resembles a seedy yellow mustard (sorry for those who have sensitive gag reflexes - you probably shouldn't be reading this anyway) and if the baby is eating formula it pretty much looks like diarrhea. I'd take the breast milk poopies (no smell either) any day over the formula. More points for breast feeding.

As my breast milk started to slow down a bit over the last few weeks, I have been trying to master the science experiment of finding the right formula. I'm still breast feeding, but supplementing with formula here and there when I have to. I still haven't figured out what formula works for Sadie. I'm so stumped that I have actually decided to work on getting my milk production back so I don't even have to deal with the formula. Breast feeding definitely gets big points these days since I can control what goes in it.

During this whole trial and error period I have completely screwed up Sadie's system. Now, that kid that pooped ten times a day has gone a week without one. Pretty scary, right? Consuming milk about 4 times a day, weighing in at around 13lbs (and counting) and where is it going? I had visions of going into her room one morning and finding poop all over the crib. I became so concerned that those visions turned into fantasies because I wanted her to poop so badly.

After trying to keep my cool for a few days since Sadie seemed pretty happy all of the time, I caved and emailed the pediatrician (yes, my pediatrician is on email - gotta love 2009). Not sure if the email thing is good or bad for the doc and me. I think I'm reaching crazy mommy status and I knew I was becoming a stalker when I got excited to see that he was a recommended friend of mine on facebook. My husband told me there was no way he would accept my request since I was quickly becoming psycho mommy. He was probably afraid to, but he did! After explaining to the doctor that it had almost been a week since Sadie pooped, he advised me to do something I feared even doing to myself... SUPPOSITORY! You become a real mommy very quickly when you have to insert something up your kid's tush. I thought the thermometer would be unpleasant until I had to do the suppository. This experience was not fun for either of us, but I will tell you... it totally worked! Exactly 10 minutes after insertion we were back! I felt such a relief. Sick, I know!

Now that things seem to be falling into place with Sadie's eating I feel like we've gotten over such a big hump in parenting. All of the sudden life seems to be so much more calm and stable. Everything flies by so fast and without even realizing it you really get the hang of things. Looking back, I think the thing I learned most from this whole experience is no matter how laid back of a newmie you think you are emailing your pediatrician is never a bad thing. Inviting him to be your friend of facebook...a little crazy!