First Night Away

Everyone has a different experience with their first night away. Hector and Jennifer of Three’s a Charm had a great night out – and don’t they deserve it – and so did Shahreen despite her initial feelings of separation anxiety. For us, it was great to get away and spend time with other adults without constantly running around after Riley who gets into everything. She’ll be 18 months this week and it was the first night since she was born that I’ve been away for a whole night. Up until now if we wanted to go out I’ve had a family member look after her but I’ve put her down to sleep before we go and she’s never really woken up before we got home.

I have co-slept with Riley since she was a baby and in the beginning it was just so that I didn’t have to get out of my nice warm bed to feed her. So it’s not just that I haven’t spent a night away, I’m used to her being in our bed as well. I could go on and on about co-sleeping (maybe another time) but you can also check out this post on the benefits of co-sleeping that says it much better than I ever could.

The Daddy Files thinks that it’s weird if you get to 9 months (let alone 18 months) and you haven’t spent a night away, because you need alone time, couple time and an opportunity to focus on your marriage. I see where he’s coming from but I don’t think you necessarily need to leave your little one with a babysitter overnight to achieve that.

I think saying goodbye was the worst part. Maybe because I’d been telling her that she was going to have a sleepover at her Auntie’s as soon as we arrived she knew that this was not just a normal visit and cried as soon as the car stopped. I sat with her a bit, because although she doesn’t normally need warm up time with my sister (she does with pretty much everyone else) that day was obviously different. When we left it wasn’t like her normal cry, it was a real devastated, tear your heart out kind of cry and then of course I cried in the car. I’d never head that type of cry from her before and for a split second I considered abandoning the whole thing, bundling her up and taking her home. But deep down I also knew that it would last for all of a couple of minutes and then she would be fine.

It was really relaxing to have both the day and night away and despite Parramatta’s heartbreaking loss to the Melbourne Storm, Mr Goog managed to be very sportsmanlike about the whole thing and didn’t let it spoil our night

I even managed to get some photos of the black hawk helicopter that was part of the pre-game entertainment:

I missed her that night, especially when I was going to bed.

The next day when we came to pick her up i don’t think I’d ever seen her that excited. She giggled and chortled and held on to me so tight I had to wait a bit before putting her in the car seat. She looked older to me. I know that is unbelievably melodramatic. But she did. She looked older. Seemed like she’d had a very good night, although my poor sister hadn’t slept that well because she kept checking to make sure that Riley was still breathing.

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not but the next day she was super clingy and it was a couple of hours before I could really put her down to do anything. It has continued to a lesser degree throughout the week. It definitely makes me think twice about doing it again. Is this some reaction to the separation? Or does it have nothing to do with it?

Tagged as: babysitter, cosleeping, night away