Date Night/First Night Away From Home

Saturday DH and I had a date night! I get frustrated because we never have a date night. I'm talking maybe 3 times a year. Everything I read/hear talks about how important it is to make time for your spouse, but it's like pulling teeth to get my husband to want to have a date night with me. That sounds terrible, but it's not that he doesn't want to spend time with me, he just thinks that being at home with each other and our munchkin is the same as being out with just each other. So since we need to have S stay at overnight at my parents' house when I'm in the hospital in a couple of weeks delivery Baby R, we did a trial run Saturday which gave us a perfect chance for one of those rare date nights.

As usual, it didn't end up being as elaborate as our original plan. We were supposed to go to the Melting Pot. Of course, when I asked DH last Monday if he had made reservations, he said no. So when I called to do so, they didn't have anything available until 9:30pm. We are midweasterners. Not only are we midwestern, but we also have a toddler with a 7:30pm bedtime. Therefore, we eat dinner early. Not quite old people early, but certainly at a time that does not make 9:30pm an acceptable option to our stomachs. So we went to plan "B", dinner and a movie. The dinner was just going to be at 54th Street Grill or Chili's or TGIFriday's - nothing super fancy, but a sit-down restaurant. The plan was to drop S of at my parents' around 5pm, have dinner around 6pm and make it to the theater for the 7:10pm showing.

S and I had a fantastic day while DH was helping his friend move. She helped me clean in the morning, we walked to the park and played, then had lunch and took a nap. She didn't have a single fit all day. She ended up napping longer than we planned, and DH was still helping his friend move, so we decided to skip dinner and just go to the movie. I dropped S off at my parents' house around 6pm with high hopes that she would have a good night since she was an angel all day. DH and I headed to the theater. We saw "Couple's Retreat". It was really good. I was surprised that there was very little vulgarity and a fair amount of real-life relationship issues addressed. DH said as we were leaving, "No more chick flicks disguised as comedies!" He was teasing, but it was definitely more romantic than we expected - a nice surprise for me. :)

We got home and it was so quiet. I had planned on going to bed early, but I had so much energy since I hadn't had our usual bedtime struggle, I mean routine, that I did a little cleaning and watched some shows I needed to get off the DVR, so I was a little late getting to bed. I didn't sleep very well. Partially due to pregnancy issues - having to get up to pee 4-5 times at night, being uncomfortable on my left side the whole time, etc. - but also because a couple of times I imagined I heard S calling for me. I missed that little munchkin. It was nice to have a little time to ourselves, but I was looking forward to seeing her, too.

Sunday morning I wanted to pick her up early since it was her first time away, so we stopped to get her a sprinkle donut (a special treat for being such a big girl!) and then headed to my parents' house around 8am. We got there and were surprised to find everyone was still asleep. S is usually up by 7:30am at the latest. My dad woke up and told me how their night had gone. Not well. She didn't go to sleep til around 11pm, then she was up from about 4am-6am. Ugh! Not what I wanted to hear. I felt terribly! My poor parents! So my dad said he'd call when she woke up, and we left. About an hour later he called, and I went to pick her up. She was a terror all day Sunday since she was tired. My old roommate and his wife and son came over for lunch, and S, who is normally pretty good about sharing her toys, was cranky and bossy and hogging them. After lunch she took a good long nap, and then we went to HyVee. I had hoped she'd be in a better mood, but no. She had a little fit when we first got there, and I told her if she didn't behave, we'd just have to go home, and she finally settled down and was good for the rest of the trip. But then on the way home, she was being a pain. Bedtime didn't go well last night either, but at least she was out by 9pm. And she woke up a few times in the night, but she slept in til 7:30am. Hoping tonight will be better, and she'll get back on schedule, and we can just deal with the usual sleep issues.