First Overnight

April 25, 2022

To Mama,

We did it. We had our first overnight without baby girl and here’s what we learned about her.

• She was ready. She had been sleeping through the night with us for a week.
• She’s slept at my parents before- both naps and they’ve put her to bed while we went to dinner a couple of times. So it wasn’t uncommon for her to fall asleep at their house.
• She’s comfortable with my parents- she sees them a couple times a week and was happy to see them in the morning instead of my husband and I.

Here’s what we learned about us:

• We were ready. We felt comfortable that our baby girl was at a good age where she was safe, healthy and could sleep outside of our home.
• We needed some “us” time. Somewhere along our journey of raising our daughter, my relationship with my husband fell to the bottom of the list. So we danced and laughed and reconnected like we were dating again.
• We should do it more often- overnights, date nights, the whole thing.

It was a big decision to stay out without our baby. I love the mornings with her, when she just woke up and she’s happy and excited to start the day. And there’s something so sweet and special when she’s super cozy and snuggly right before bed at night. I treasure these moments and when she’s all grown up, these are the moments I can imagine wanting to hold onto a little longer.

Deep down, I knew she would be fine, great even. She loves my parents and they were over the moon excited and honored to watch her for her first overnight without us. They know our little one almost as well as we do and they’ve had the pleasure of watching her grow for the last 8 1/2 months. I want this- a strong relationship between our little one and her grandparents because my relationship with my own grandparents was and continues to be something so very truly special.

I missed her though and in a big way, I missed my husband too. Our relationship grew and changed as our baby girl grew and changed. Our day to day interactions, while sweet and at times, romantic, became more purposeful- what needed to get done to help our little one; errands to be run, laundry to be washed and folded and meals to be prepped and cooked. A night to ourselves was long overdue.

And we had an amazing time. We laughed, we danced, we looked great, felt great and really had an opportunity to just be with each other- baby girl was safe and looked after, our pup was home with a great friend and we could just be us.

We had to be ready and now that we are, I’m hopeful we can plan and look forward to more “us” time.

Long after our little one is grown, my husband will be the one sitting next to me on the deck, old & gray and hopefully happy. The only way to actually ensure that part is to continue to make time for us and if you can, I encourage you to do the same.

You matter. Your relationship with your partner matters. Parenting may be a whole lot easier if everyone feels valued, important and appreciated; including you.

You got this mama.

With love,

a reconnected mama