Better

"It gets better" they all told me when Benjamin was first born and we had quite rough times. Not that I didn't believe them (most of them being my very close friends, of course I trust and believe them) but I was quite skeptical about "when" it will get better.... in 2023?

Up until today, I had been so nervous to venture outside the house with Baby... But with proper planning and not getting your hopes high on what all is going to be accomplished, we managed to run some errands today.

First I fed him and changed his diaper. Once he was happy, we got in the car. But before leaving the house, I wrapped the Moby Wrap around me (I call it the kangaroo)... this was a suggestion by a friend. She suggested putting the wrap on at the house and driving with it to wherever you are going. That way, when you get there, all you have to do is get baby out of the car seat and put in him in the wrap. GENIUS.

So that's what we did. First stop was Kroger.

This was my view after a few minutes:

I knew the errands I needed (or wanted) to run and I also knew that I had to be back home by his next feeding (less than 2 hours) in order to maintain sanity and everyone's stress levels down.

So we hauled through Kroger and got everything on our list.

Then we went to pick up my eyeglasses. Same thing, kept the wrap on while baby was in the car seat and quickly snuggled him in it when we arrived.

Once that mission was accomplished and baby was still quite tame, I stopped by Chipotle to grab lunch... I do have to say that every restaurant is somewhat fast-foodish that you can do to-go at, should have a drive through. Certainly would make things easier... or make me fat out of convenience. Either one.

Running errands and doing things with baby is not impossible. Just overwhelming at the thought of it until you get over it - either by giving yourself little pep talks or by diving in because you have no other choice.

You say "you did only those 3 things in two hours"... yes, time does fly when you have baby with you. Park in a shady spot. Take baby out of car seat. Put in kangaroo. Walk to store. Then you try to go so fast that you realize that you were in the ground beef section but now you are across the store and have to go back to get the ground beef... have to walk back. Check out. Walk back to car in shady spot. Remove baby from kangaroo. Buckle up in car seat. Drive to the next stop and do it all over again.

Needless to say my good companion, who behaved perfectly (I honestly was anticipating - and mentally prepared for - a meltdown in the produce section), was worn out when we finally headed home.

Now, breastfeeding outside the house... that's a completely different story from a different book that happens to be in a different language. Certainly not ready to tackle all that just yet.