On Our Own

Mums's last cuddle with Charlotte before going to the airport.

Well, we’re on our own. Mums flew home yesterday, and I only whimpered a little bit as we pulled away from the departure area. Okay, maybe I whimpered a lot. It was very difficult to part with her. Mums was an enormous help while she was here. Not only did she cook, clean, do laundry, change diapers, and rock and rock and rock Charlotte, but she survived two blizzards and 10 days relatively cooped up inside a chilly, small, and crowded apartment. And she was quite cheerful about it all. After dropping Mums off at the airport, the remaining three of us went to Barnes and Noble to get a book Charlotte’s pediatrician recommended on SLEEPING, and then we hit Buy Buy Baby to invest in a swing. On the way there, we called Chris’s brother, who has two young kids, to get his opinion on the swing. Chris: Do you think it’s worth buying a swing? Jason: Yes. I would have paid $1,000 for ours. It’s like a third parent. Chris: Yeah. We were planning on waiting until we moved into the house because the apartment is so small, but I think we’re going to buy it now. Jason: Get rid of your bed if you don’t have enough room, but buy the swing. And so we did. We also invested in a sling to hopefully make traveling easier. I’ll be flying to Seattle March 6–13—solo. That’s right. A 6-hour flight with a 5-week-old infant. See how much I love my West Coast peeps? (Chris must work, although we’re still tossing around the idea of him coming out for a couple of days at the end of the week.) Charlotte handled the Big Outing quite well, although Mommy was super clumsy as she tried to change a diaper in a public restroom. The fact I had to wipe everything down with a disinfectant wipe prior to putting down a liner didn’t exactly speed things up. Then Charlotte had poo on her outfit, so she had to be dressed in clean clothes, all while touching as little as possible in the bathroom. Charlotte, however, was exceedingly tolerant during the whole ordeal, and for that I am grateful! Surely I’ll get better at this whole mom thing, right?