Night Out at the Seattle Symphony

What you are about to read will either make you laugh, or cry. I am the one who actually experienced it, and I did both.

For about 6 weeks now, Will has been planning on taking me to the symphony. It was to be our first dressy date since Preston was born. The tickets were purchased, the babysitter was lined up, and the dinner reservations were planned.

The night was Tuesday evening.

I had considered everything I needed to get done in order to be ready and knowing I needed to leave no later than 3:15pm, I started counting backwards to estimate my schedule.

Ok, 10 min to load the car. 15 min to feed Preston. 15 min to eat lunch. 1 hour to get ready. 20 min to shower. 15 min to feed Preston. 10 min to dress him. 15 min to get diaper bag ready. 10 min for diaper changes. 45 min to work out. 3 min to look up directions and print out.

I need to start doing all of this by 11:30am.

Everything was going great.

I had been pumping milk for the last day so that I would have enough to give our friends (aka the babysitters) to watch Preston all evening. I went to the fridge around 1pm to do one last pump. I found the bottle of milk (only 6 oz of the precious stuff that I was able to spare so far) had tipped over in the fridge and drained to the bottom of the fridge floor.

I was devastated. If you have breastfed before, you know how hard it is to come up with extra when you are trying to simultaneously feed as well. What was I supposed to do? Now Preston would not have any milk for the rest of the evening.

I tried to stay calm, going over in my head "Okay, I could try to pump some more but there still won't be enough. There is none frozen in the freezer. CRAP! He is going to have to have his first taste of formula."

Well, Preston won't even take a bottle. So giving him some new type of milk AND a bottle? I felt sorry for our babysitters already.

I continued getting ready, all the while Preston was fussy and crying and needing my attention. I hadn't eaten lunch yet, it was already 2:30 and I was supposed to leave in 45 min. So the easiest thing I could think of, was to make a smoothie and drink it while I was getting ready.

During this: Fussy baby, fussy baby, and more fussy baby. I am even more behind schedule.

I go to my closet to pick out what to wear. I look at my huge selection of fancy dresses knowing that I only fit into, oh, maybe 2 of them. But I grab 5, starting out with trying on the ones I knew probably wouldn't fit, and ending with the ones I knew did fit.

Well, it was of course the last dress I tried on that was the only one that fit. Put the dress on. Preston is crying to be fed.

Take the dress off, feed him. Put the dress back on.

I go into the bathroom seeing how it is now 3:15, I still have curlers in my hair, and I am not even remotely ready to leave yet.

I reach over to grab something off the bathroom counter and knock my glass of strawberry smoothie over. It falls and spills all over my makeup, into the bathroom drawers, onto the floor and splashes all over the front of my dress. And the ONE dress that fit me, I remind you.

I am crying at this point but trying not to because I don't want to have to redo my makeup on top of everything.

I am able to remove most all the smoothie from my dress. I hurry and put my shoes on. Preston is miraculously being good. I take my curlers out and realize again how much I hate my hair since I cut it all off.

I grab everything and take it down to the car, realizing I left some things upstairs. I start the car and run back up the 25 stairs only to find I locked myself out. I run back down the stairs and grab the keys from the ignition, and go up again and grab what I need.

I drive 15 min to the babysitter's house and realize as I am almost there, that I forgot Preston's formula and his jar of applesauce. This was a necessity that I bring it, being that he does not have any breastmilk.

So I have to turn around and go all the way home and get his food. By this time it is 4:15.

Finally, I drop everything plus Preston off at the sitters and leave to go pick up Will from work. It was 4:30. And our dinner reservation was for 5pm.

After this point though the evening actually ended up going really smoothly. Our date was lovely. The food was fantastic, the concert was fun, and it was nice to be together. But WOW. The part leading up to the date? Hope that never happens again!