On Saturday, Mark and I went out without the tiny one for the first time since her arrival into the sweet little world. In fact, Charlotte has only had a “babysitter” twice… Once my parents and once Mark’s mom… Both for verrrry short periods of time.

My AMAZING girlfriends, Ashley and Carrie, volunteered for the job on Saturday and honestly, I couldn’t have had a better team for my first real night out. Ashley is a PICU nurse and Carrie is a wonderful momma to a sweet little nugget.

The girls were scheduled to arrive around 530/545, which gave me time to put Charlotte to sleep before we headed downtown for dinner and the broadway production of the Lion King… With my parents! I know, hot date! But it was great! I had invited myself to crash their date and got tickets way before Charlotte was born. SO FUN!

However, Miss C had other plans. Despite napping like a little champ the first half of the day, Charlotte decided that an afternoon nap was out of the question. She fussed and fought it for what felt like forever. Then finally at 430, she fell asleep.

She’s done this before and has ended up thinking she was down for the night and just sleeping through. I was torn at this. If she went to bed at 430, she’d likely wake up at 10 or so while we were still gone. That would require the girlies to feed her. I’m 100% sure they’d do an amazing job, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Charlotte wouldn’t recognize them and I worried she would be scared.

Oy. Whatever, it didn’t matter because she decided to wake up at 515… About 5 minutes before my friends arrived. Ughhhh! Stress. Of course, she was way overtired and melting down. So, Ashley went to put her to bed before we left and Charlotte was good for a minute and then it was a scream fest.

Long story short, Mark ended up going in to bottle feed her and put her to bed. I was a stressed out, anxious mess until I took down a glass of wine at dinner, which went from a yummy bbq/steak place downtown to Noodles & Co because we were running so late once Mark got Charlotte fed and in bed.

Regardless, it really was a fun dinner and the show was great! I managed to enjoy myself and only checked my phone for texts from the girls every 30 or so minutes. And of course, they were so great and kept texting me to make me less neurotic. Pretty amazing friends, huh?

All in all, it was a great night! Charlotte stayed sleeping until we got home, so I got to cozy up with her, give her a million smooches and feed her after a lovely date.

BUT, I’ve gotta say, somehow I don’t feel like the first-night-out bandaid has been ripped off quite yet. My nerves are still quite high. Time, right? I’m sure it will get easier to leave my girl.