The first night

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On Saturday Hubby turned a year older, and his one wish was a dinner with just the two of us. I was partly excited because I haven’t eaten my dinner with two hands, or in one sitting for over six months now and a lot excited about just having time with the two of us. I was also a lot nervous at the thought of leaving Luella for the first time.

I’m a stress head, a worrier, an anxious manxious {totally a word} so leaving Luella for the first time was like a military operation. I didn’t just employ one babysitter, because that would be far too simple and normal. I arranged three. My Ma, my Lil Sis and her husband. I wrote a note and left it on the fridge titled, ‘Things to do if Luella is cranky’.

My family knows me well, so they didn’t even roll their eyes, they just read it, and took note. Or they waited until I wasn’t looking.

I got dressed, put on MAKE-UP {so fancy guys} and we left. I didn’t do goodbyes because that would mean tears {mine} and that would mean messy mascara face {also mine}. So we just jumped in the car and left.

I knew that the crew of babysitters I left behind would be all kinds of awesome. My Ma is great at the hugging stuff. She never gives up and would just hug and snuggle and soothe all night if required. My Lil Sis is an over-achiever. If you tell her, “My baby never sleeps” she’ll gun for an A+ and get that sweet baby to sleep. And my brother-in-law is pretty much a big kid, so I knew he’d be causing some sort of fun for Lacey while the others were preoccupied {turns out they did a gazillion cartwheels on the front lawn}.

Before we’d even arrived at the restaurant we got a text, “Luella is fast asleep in her own bed”. That’s something not even I could have achieved at that time. Awesome.

We went to our favourite restaurant, Bazaar at Surfers Paradise. It’s a bit away from home but has an amazing buffet-style selection {they call it an international market place}. My eyes always check out desserts. You like?

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Those little crumbles in the jars with the creme anglaise? I wanted to marry those.
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I ordered a glass of wine. I ate oysters. We talked. But mostly I just enjoyed the quiet. The calm. I forgot what that felt like.

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t anxious. I was, but I knew everyone was in good hands. We finished dinner and headed home at an almost too civilised hour {ahem, 8:30pm}. Hubby suggested we could take a walk on the beach. I suggested that it might an idea to get home because I was sure that everything was going to crap {Luella always wakes 3 times in the first hour after she goes down to bed, and then every hour or so after. Fun!}.

We were almost home when another text came through, Luella was back asleep in my sister’s arms. But it came at a cost. Lil Sis endured a love bite as Luella tried to soothe herself to sleep. Evidence:

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It made me think of all the times I babysat as a Nanny. I’d stay awake for as long as possible while the parents had fun. I’d always fall asleep though and just wake as they would walk up the stairs. And something random would always be on the TV, and I’d try and pretend like I wasn’t asleep at all. I love watching golf at midnight, I do. And yep, my hair always looks this disheveled. Parents were always much merrier when they returned. Sometimes completely smashed. Sometimes it worked in my favour because they were more generous with payment. Awesome.

And then there was us. Home before 9pm and into our pyjamas. There’s always next time, right?

12 thoughts on “The first night”

  1. I have left the munchkin (7 months on Saturday – eep) with my sister in law and my mum, but today I did an exercise session that has nannies to look after the babies. We trained no more than 100m away and as I walked away, leaving her with COMPLETE STRANGERS I teared up and had to pull myself together! When I went back I reluctantly asked about whether she shouted a lot and saw her laying back with a rusk in a rocker and they looked at me like I was crazy – she was totally chilled out. Relief, but slight indignation that I never get that relaxed baby!

  2. Sounds amazing. I left mine for a night away for the fist time at 6 months and it was weird but great! And we’ve had plenty more since! xx

  3. Sounds like you had a great night. I remember the first time my husband and I went for dinner on our own, and left my daughter with my Mum. We went to an amazing restaurant, polished off a bottle of wine between us, 3 courses (dessert was shared) and we were home for a cup of tea by 8.30!!! Admittedly the restaurant was only 5 min away. We must have just eaten our food fast while it was hot like we always do when at home without realising!!!

  4. I resonated with this entry on so many levels Chantelle! Do you boob Luella to sleep? Is that why she gave the love bite? Heheh. Olivia is almost 18 months old and still wakes for most sleep cycles (the whole hourly waking thing you talked about). Until I went to sleep school with her at 6 months old (which I regret but thats a diff story) I never knew that most babies did that or that babies even had sleep cycles (the average being 40 mins). We got in a (bad?) habit of requiring boob every time she woke (yep, hourly!) because it meant more sleep for me, instead of resettling her in other ways. Only in the last few weeks has she been able to nap longer than 40 mins before rousing. Sorry for the novel, point was that I SO hear you!! x

  5. I love that you got three baby sitters in…for different aspects of the job…lol..if I said I was jealous that you had three family members as an opition would that make me a bad person? But happy jealous I think its so nice..and I too would have been home by 9pm and in bed..I couldn’t think of a nicer way to finish the night..

  6. Beautiful! So glad you had a lovely dinner. I was worried about leaving my one ear old and 3 year old with my mum in law so that hubby and I could go to a wedding not because I didn’t think she could do it, but I didn’t want to overwhelm her with two kids but she was fine! Sometimes we worry too much but it’s natural when you’re a mum.

  7. My baby is now four (almost five – eek!) and I must admit that we hardly get out on our own. That being said, we are both on annual leave, renovating, and both children were at school/kinder. We went out for lunch. It was a modern day miracle. We took off our boots and visited the closest cafe.

    It was over in around 30 minutes, but it was good! Treasure these times! x

  8. My son is now nine months and we haven’t yet braved a night out.
    Well done, your hubby must have been grateful.
    P.S. I have sported a love bite from my son too as he “latched” onto my arm while I rocked him to sleep. I don’t know how I didn’t notice until much later! 🙂

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