Yes, yes it is.
We went out for a lovely dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate my return to work. Unlimited pasta bowls, great breadsticks, lots of salad... what could possibly go wrong? When you have an infant, you get a whole new perspective on Murphy's' law.
She slept the whole car ride there so I knew we would never make it through the entree without some fussing and sure enough, before we were even done with our first salad plate, she wanted to nurse. I'm not yet comfortable nursing in public and I didn't want to leave the table to nurse in private, so I gave her a bottle. She calmed down and went back to sleep in her car seat. She has these harness pads that feature cute little puppy dogs and she had one ear in her mouth, using her arm as a pillow.
Once our food arrived, angel hair with meat sauce, we dug in. It was really, really good. I got meatballs and sausage on mine. I was in heaven.
After a few minutes, I looked down and noticed that the puppy on the right side was really dirty. I leaned in for closer examination "What did you get all over your puppy? Did that happen at O's?" Then I noticed a small puddle on the right hand side of the car seat. "Oh no... Wipes. I need wipes!"
My Husband grabbed the wipes out of the diaper bag. "This one's empty, get the other one."
He rummaged and found my store brand back-ups at the bottom of the bag. I grabbed a few out and threw them over her right side since she was trying to put her poo covered hand in her mouth.
I asked one of the waiters if he could get me a bag. Sadly, Olive Garden doesn't use plastic. Good for recycling... bad for poo covered clothes. I took it anyway and ran to the bathroom with the car seat. Alyssa stayed remarkably calm.
I got the changing table pulled down, threw her changing pad on it and got everything set to get her cleaned up. Then i got smacked in the head with a stall door. Those bathrooms are tiny!
A little girl tugged on her Mommy's hand "Look at the little baby! Can I go see it?" Her mom walked her over to get a better view. "Oh, what a precious little angel you have! Can my daughter shake her hand?"
"Now really isn't a good time... She's going to start screaming any second."
"Oh, does she not like to get changed?"
"She does just fine with diapers but this is a little more involved."
I grabbed some paper towels to protect my hands (note to self: add disposable gloves to the diaper bag. And an apron.) and grabbed Alyssa under the arm pits.
"Don't do that, you'll drop her... OH MY! Come on honey, let's let this mommy get her cleaned up."
It was worse than I thought. Her entire right side was covered in poop. All the way to her ear. I didn't even know where to start. I grabbed some wipes and got as much as I could cleaned up, then I changed her diaper. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to put real buttons on the back of a dress (her brand new dress. never worn. so cute.) but they need to be stabbed.
I couldn't get all of the buttons undone while trying to keep her from squirming to the floor, so it was a little bit of a struggle to pull her dress down rather than going over hear head, but I finally got it off. I tossed it in the paper bag, along with everything that was in the car seat, and realized that her new diaper was now poo covered. So I put down some paper towels and changed her diaper again.
I lined her car seat with paper towels so that I could put her back in it while I washed off her changing pad.
Once everything was clean enough, I took her back to her daddy and got the keys to take the dirty clothes to the car.
The waitress gave exclaimed, "You survived!" and threw her arms around me. I guess My Husband told her what happened.
The waitress boxed up our food and even got us our 'endless pasta' refills to take home. Amazing! I couldn't believe that she was going to do that. We gave her a really good tip. Alyssa was asleep before we even got to the car.
My Husband and I chatted a little bit on the way back, but mostly we were talking ourselves through the gameplan for once we got home. I dismantled the car seat and threw everything that would detach into the washing machine. Then I dumped the paper bag in. There was no time to scrub everything beforehand... my stomach was already a little weak. We got Allie out of her backup outfit and threw that in too, then we put her in the sink for a bath. She wasn't real happy since we had woken her up, but she did pretty well.
I can now officially say that I cannot wait to go back to work.
I love my daughter. More than I've ever loved anything in my life. I want to make sure she has the means to have nice clothing, a great education, and everything she needs to grow and develop her own personality. To do that, I know that I need to work... at least for a little while.
If we get enough saved up, I won't have to work when we have our next child so I am willing to do whatever it takes now. On nights when O is going to keep her overnight, I'm going to put in some extra hours that way we can pad our savings account with all of the extra income. That will also help keep my mind busy so I'm not so sad. It's a necessary evil but knowing that O will have her for a few days in a row just breaks my heart. It's really the only option but I feel guilty for letting her keep Alyssa so much... like I'm missing out on an important part of being a new mom.
I already have a 2 hour commute and if I had to drop her off and pick her up everyday, that would quickly turn into 3 and a half or 4 hours.
I hope my little Allie Cat understands that I'm not abandoning her... Once she's a teenager screaming about how I never loved her, I'll have her look at this blog and show her that no one could ever love her more. Afterall, I let her wipe poop on me in a restaurant bathroom.
We went out for a lovely dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate my return to work. Unlimited pasta bowls, great breadsticks, lots of salad... what could possibly go wrong? When you have an infant, you get a whole new perspective on Murphy's' law.
She slept the whole car ride there so I knew we would never make it through the entree without some fussing and sure enough, before we were even done with our first salad plate, she wanted to nurse. I'm not yet comfortable nursing in public and I didn't want to leave the table to nurse in private, so I gave her a bottle. She calmed down and went back to sleep in her car seat. She has these harness pads that feature cute little puppy dogs and she had one ear in her mouth, using her arm as a pillow.
Once our food arrived, angel hair with meat sauce, we dug in. It was really, really good. I got meatballs and sausage on mine. I was in heaven.
After a few minutes, I looked down and noticed that the puppy on the right side was really dirty. I leaned in for closer examination "What did you get all over your puppy? Did that happen at O's?" Then I noticed a small puddle on the right hand side of the car seat. "Oh no... Wipes. I need wipes!"
My Husband grabbed the wipes out of the diaper bag. "This one's empty, get the other one."
He rummaged and found my store brand back-ups at the bottom of the bag. I grabbed a few out and threw them over her right side since she was trying to put her poo covered hand in her mouth.
I asked one of the waiters if he could get me a bag. Sadly, Olive Garden doesn't use plastic. Good for recycling... bad for poo covered clothes. I took it anyway and ran to the bathroom with the car seat. Alyssa stayed remarkably calm.
I got the changing table pulled down, threw her changing pad on it and got everything set to get her cleaned up. Then i got smacked in the head with a stall door. Those bathrooms are tiny!
A little girl tugged on her Mommy's hand "Look at the little baby! Can I go see it?" Her mom walked her over to get a better view. "Oh, what a precious little angel you have! Can my daughter shake her hand?"
"Now really isn't a good time... She's going to start screaming any second."
"Oh, does she not like to get changed?"
"She does just fine with diapers but this is a little more involved."
I grabbed some paper towels to protect my hands (note to self: add disposable gloves to the diaper bag. And an apron.) and grabbed Alyssa under the arm pits.
"Don't do that, you'll drop her... OH MY! Come on honey, let's let this mommy get her cleaned up."
It was worse than I thought. Her entire right side was covered in poop. All the way to her ear. I didn't even know where to start. I grabbed some wipes and got as much as I could cleaned up, then I changed her diaper. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to put real buttons on the back of a dress (her brand new dress. never worn. so cute.) but they need to be stabbed.
I couldn't get all of the buttons undone while trying to keep her from squirming to the floor, so it was a little bit of a struggle to pull her dress down rather than going over hear head, but I finally got it off. I tossed it in the paper bag, along with everything that was in the car seat, and realized that her new diaper was now poo covered. So I put down some paper towels and changed her diaper again.
I lined her car seat with paper towels so that I could put her back in it while I washed off her changing pad.
Once everything was clean enough, I took her back to her daddy and got the keys to take the dirty clothes to the car.
The waitress gave exclaimed, "You survived!" and threw her arms around me. I guess My Husband told her what happened.
The waitress boxed up our food and even got us our 'endless pasta' refills to take home. Amazing! I couldn't believe that she was going to do that. We gave her a really good tip. Alyssa was asleep before we even got to the car.
My Husband and I chatted a little bit on the way back, but mostly we were talking ourselves through the gameplan for once we got home. I dismantled the car seat and threw everything that would detach into the washing machine. Then I dumped the paper bag in. There was no time to scrub everything beforehand... my stomach was already a little weak. We got Allie out of her backup outfit and threw that in too, then we put her in the sink for a bath. She wasn't real happy since we had woken her up, but she did pretty well.
I can now officially say that I cannot wait to go back to work.
I love my daughter. More than I've ever loved anything in my life. I want to make sure she has the means to have nice clothing, a great education, and everything she needs to grow and develop her own personality. To do that, I know that I need to work... at least for a little while.
If we get enough saved up, I won't have to work when we have our next child so I am willing to do whatever it takes now. On nights when O is going to keep her overnight, I'm going to put in some extra hours that way we can pad our savings account with all of the extra income. That will also help keep my mind busy so I'm not so sad. It's a necessary evil but knowing that O will have her for a few days in a row just breaks my heart. It's really the only option but I feel guilty for letting her keep Alyssa so much... like I'm missing out on an important part of being a new mom.
I already have a 2 hour commute and if I had to drop her off and pick her up everyday, that would quickly turn into 3 and a half or 4 hours.
I hope my little Allie Cat understands that I'm not abandoning her... Once she's a teenager screaming about how I never loved her, I'll have her look at this blog and show her that no one could ever love her more. Afterall, I let her wipe poop on me in a restaurant bathroom.
2 comments:
OMG. That's definitely a great story to save for the first time you meet her first motorcycle-riding boyfriend! I'm just catching up and feel awful that you're having to make such hard choices and to be away from your little one. Who will poop on you when she's not around??? Well, hopefully no one. But you know what I mean.
Well, we just found out that our sitter has decided to no longer watch Alyssa at night. And she wants more money. And I will have to drop Alyssa off and pick her up.
This means that my work commute will now be about 90 miles, round trip, 5 days a week.
We may have no other choice than to let my parents keep her until Christmas.
Being a mom is hard... you have to make too many hard decisions and you never know if you're doing the right thing!
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