The Perfect Night

Last night was the perfect night.  I left work at 4 and when I arrived at day care, Elijah was asleep.  Perfect.  Why?  Because I had about a million errands to run.  So I left him there.  I called Daniel to delegate pick-up to him, and proceeded to drive all over town completing my various tasks.  Pick up Elijah's prescription, get groceries at Costco, pick up our Christmas cards.  Elijah's teacher called me about 5pm to tell me he had woken up, and miracle of miracles- Daniel had just called me to tell me he was almost there to pick him up.  So I went home and had enough time to unload milk from the day, wash the pump parts, put away groceries, and start dinner before Daniel and Elijah arrived home around 5:30.  I fed Elijah while Daniel finished cooking dinner, and we even got to eat dinner at the table with no baby on either of our laps.  Elijah happily played in his little bouncy seat and babbled along with our conversation.  When we finished eating we gave Elijah a bath and put his jammies on.  We read 2 short picture books.  Elijah was then swaddled, and this is where I leave Daniel to do the dirty work.  I HATE bedtime.  I have no patience for crying, squirming, or any of the strategies Elijah uses to prolong sleep.  Daniel, on the other hand, doesn't mind at all.  So while he rocks Elijah to sleep I pull out clothes for the next day, pack up his things for day care, and pick up the house.  Usually this ends in me either heating up a bottle or nursing him because he won't stop crying and that's the only way to get him calmed down and asleep.  But last night, within 10 minutes Elijah was fast asleep in Daddy's arms, and then, his crib.  By 7:30 he was in bed and we actually had time to spend together before my (ridiculously early but very necessary) 8:30 bedtime.  And we spent that time watching the finale of Survivor and assembling our Christmas cards.

By the way, I am really proud of us for actually putting together Christmas cards.  I really wanted to send some out but it sounded like way too much work and I had no idea how we would find the time to do it.  This is life after baby.  

I actually did a little cheer when Elijah was in bed at 7:30.  It is SO rare that I actually get time to do anything for myself.  Especially on a week night.  And I got ONE WHOLE hour to do things that I wanted to do.  Glorious.

Side note: Elijah did wake up briefly at 8:30, then again at midnight, and again at 3am.  But you can't win 'em all, right?  :-)