This week, I was 34 minutes late to a doctor’s appointment, wrote three thank you notes, scrubbed one toilet, brushed my teeth before noon on several occasions, and showered nearly every-other-day. In short, week six was ever-so-slightly productive. And this is very important to me, because my obsession with getting things done has not waned since giving birth.
As the weeks go by, Dave and I are learning ways to game the system in our effort to hold onto at least some level of pre-baby productivity.
One trick to actually getting out of the house seems to be dining with the old people.
On Saturday afternoon, sweet Dave made us early reservations at Ruth’s Chris so we could have a romantic dinner with a (hopefully) sleeping infant third wheel. The key was getting there at 5 p.m., the moment their doors opened. We wanted to be sure we wouldn’t disturb the steak-eating fancy folk if Suzianne decided to get vocal. This strategy made the outing much less stressful than last time.
It worked! Suzianne slept like a champ and we enjoyed a fabulous one hour and fifteen minute dinner without a single baby peep:
I didn’t have to feed her or even rock the stroller. We took this commemorative photo to document our awesomeness:
And we were home by 6:20 p.m.
Of course, the moment we entered the apartment, she was STARVING. But that was okay because baby can have whatever she wants when momma has just had beer, steak and potatoes.
Second trick we learned this week: make do with what you have.
Special shout out to Dave for taking the empty Ruth’s Chris to-go bags and stuffing them into Suzianne’s diaper bag. He said he thought I might need them at some point to put a dirty diaper in.
At the time, I thought he was crazy. Three days later, when I changed Suzianne’s diaper in the trunk of our Audi and needed a place to store her poop, I was singing Dave’s praises:
Speaking of the Audi, 30 minutes after using our trunk for a change table, I had to pull over and feed her on my way to my doctors appointment (thus, being 34 minutes late). So happy I had thrown some breast milk in a bottle before I headed out; the bottle was much easier than stripping down on the side of the road:
I’ll be honest with you though, I’m struggling with all the to-do’s I want to check off, but cannot. Dave and I both acknowledge life is different now, but that doesn’t mean we can change how we are wired.
We are people who get things done. It will take some time for me to get used to the fact that some days, the only thing I will accomplish is feeding and loving on our baby.
Deep down I know that if “keeping baby alive and well” is the one box I check off today, that’s still an awesome accomplishment. And a privilege. But it does’t make it an easy pill to swallow.
In the interest of keeping it real, I’ll tell you that during week six, I really had a hard time facing this new reality.
But, hey, today, did the laundry AND kept Suzianne alive and fed. She even had on cute socks. So, I’m feeling pretty good about week seven…
You’ll get your time back, I promise. But Shannon and I discovered that dining with old people has even more advantages. You get to have a round of cocktails early and, when baby has gone to bed, you can start all over again 😉 And there’s a certain amount of freedom in taking some things off of your “to-do” list permanently–you’ll see they get replaced with things as, or more, rewarding.
We treated this as a letter to us. 🙂 You two are special, special. Suzianne is truly blessed by having you as her parents. God loves you and so do we. 🙂
your car is disgustingly clean!!!!! you are doing GREAT. you are a thousand times more productive than i am and i don’t have an infant! 🙂
I’m with April. You still amaze me as the GTD rock star that you are, and I love you.
Newman and the randomly-thoughtful, diaper-bag reinforcements = what a whiz kid.
“April” (HA! oh, bless) – I meant Carla.