Babysitting High

B and I went out with Romeo and Juliet on saturday night. This is the third time we've left Mia for an evening. The first time, she was only about three weeks old, and she was with my Mom. We went out for sushi and were back before she had even woken up once. I felt fine. My theory is that I was barely even used to the idea of being a mother, so being away from my baby wasn't any kind of traumatizing experience. Plus, she was with my Mom, who had spent almost as much time with Mia as I had up to that point.

The second time, I desperately wanted to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. I love Harry Potter and absolutely couldn't wait to see the movie. B and I planned to get dinner afterwards. We dropped Mia off about 10 minutes before the movie was to start, and as soon as the movie was done, both of us wanted to race back and pick her up. Forget dinner, we just ordered pizza. Mia was about 6 weeks old. By then, I wasn't as much of a zombie boob lady, and Mia had started being awake for longer periods of time and was beginning to become the delightful baby she is now. I didn't even get to enjoy the movie, I was so preoccupied, wondering how she was doing with someone she had barely spent time with before.

So, back to Saturday. One of my co-workers is also NICU nurse at the hospital where I delivered. She moved from Chicago to Vegas a few months before we did. Every day I bring Mia to work, J comes into my office and takes her from me for at least an hour or two in the mornings, and I get most of my work done while they're off visiting. She's been asking, actually asking, rather than offering, to babysit. She looked at her schedule and gave me last Saturday as the first Saturday she wasn't working. So, we set everything up around it.

I was not nervous this time. Mia and J have spent a nice amount of time together at work, so Mia recognized and smiled at her immediately. J's boys, 8 and 16, were thrilled to have a little girl in the house. Plus, who better to babysit your infant than an NICU nurse? Nobody. We dropped her off around 3:30. When we got back in the car on our way to a movie theatre to catch a show before dinner, both B and I were cracking stupid jokes, laughing and generally acting super silly. We bought popcorn AND candy (this is 2 days pre-diet) and thouroughly enjoyed ourselves. By the time we got to dinner, we felt like we were at least 2 margaritas ahead of Romeo and Juliet (who were decidedly less babysitter high than we were). We had a great dinner among adults, and even though we did talk about babies, we were also able to talk about other, non-baby things! Amazing!

We picked Mia up at 10pm exactly, a bit margarita tipsy (just me, not B), and she was fast asleep. She didn't wake up to go in her carseat, or into her bassinet. She woke up around 4:30, the way she usually does and gave me a big big smile (HEY! IT'S YOU! I LIKE YOU!). It was great to hav the time on our own, but it was also great to see her smile again. Now, three days later, B and I are still in a better mood than we were on Saturday morning. We definitely needed some time together, and it's nice to know that despite our life being drastically different, we are still ourselves.