Monday, May 11, 2009

Question of the Week - Date Night

First, (belated) Happy Mother's Day!! I hope all you mamas had a wonderful day and you daddies aren't too exhausted from shopping for presents and cards, making breakfasts, watching the kiddos and doing housework! I had a wonderful day, and I thank Londo for being so good to me.

Second, there is a fantastic new website/blog, which just went live yesterday, called The Breastfeeding Experience. The purpose is to help support mothers and mothers-to-be by sharing other mother's experiences with breastfeeding. The triumphs, the struggles, the disappointments, the experiences. I shared my story, which was posted last night. (There's even a picture I submitted with it!) Please check out the site and all the fantastic stories that women have shared so far. Please consider sharing your own.

Now on to today's post...

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Here I am, 34.5 weeks (8 months) pregnant. I am feeling huge, achy, uncomfortable, tired, emotional and all that other fun stuff that comes with being this pregnant. I'm nervous and excited about having a second child join the chaos that is our house. But I'm really worried about having time with my husband to simply enjoy each other and stay connected with each other. (I'm also worried about getting any "me time" at all, but that's a different post.)

Thankfully, my dad and mom were so wonderful to babysit Saturday night so that Londo and I could go out to dinner and a movie. We have no idea when we will have another chance to go out to a movie, as we are definitely not going when I'm much closer to my due date. And after that, we will not want to (or at least be able to) go out for a few months.

But my parents gave us the opportunity this Saturday. And what started out as a rush because everything takes me so freaking long these days, turned into a relaxing evening out when Londo convinced me to go to the later movie so we wouldn't rush dinner. And my parents insisted we take our time and enjoy ourselves.

We had a delicious dinner at a Thai restaurant, followed by enjoying the sunny evening at the courtyard of the stores where kids and dogs were playing and we ran into neighbor/friends. Finally, we headed to the theater around the corner and saw the new Star Trek movie (absolutely awesome!!!).

When we got home after 11:00 (so late for me!), my dad was hanging out with our dog and the monitor. The Pumpkin had gone to sleep really easily for my mom just after 8:00 (whew!) and hadn't stirred since then. The perfect end to the night would normally be some romantic time between hubby and me, however, it was way past this pregnant woman's bedtime. I totally fell asleep within minutes after getting ready for bed, and Londo got to watch TV and I think he texted with his brother about how great the movie was.

So it was almost my ideal date night. Delicious dinner, relaxing time chatting while enjoying a summer evening, great movie, and coming home to no problems reported about the toddler. Oh, and we got to sleep through the night without the toddler waking up--BONUS!!! Back in my youth, I might have wanted to go dancing or play pool at the bar or go to a party. But right here, right now, when I'm this pregnant and we have so much else going on, I can't think of a better date night!

Which is this week's question of the week:

What is currently your ideal date night?

Do you just want to stay in and cuddle on the couch? Do you want to geek out at opening night of Star Trek? Do you still want to go dancing all night? What would be perfect for you and your partner right now?

5 comments:

BisBink said...

Your date night sounds ideal. I think that would be my perfect date night as well, except I would opt for something other the Star Trek. You wouldn't have guessed that, huh? Glad you and Londo were able to get out to enjoy some time together and that the Pumpkin was awesome for your parents!

Charisse said...

Well, last weekend Mouse went on her first sleepover at a nearby friend's house...Mr. C and I discovered that during a recession you can actually get a reservation at a shmancy restaurant in San Francisco on an hour's notice, so out we went. It was lovely. This ended up being a late dinner followed by some nobody-else-in-the-house hanky panky. Which is all super. A newly released movie never kills me either--our previous date night was seeing Milk at the Castro Theatre, which was pretty cool. Or an elegant party with grown-ups. Do I have to choose one?

Cloud said...

I liked your breastfeeding story. I realized after I'd sent mine in that I forgot to mention the part where I couldn't eat dairy for 8 months. That made me laugh, because when I first realized that I'd have to give up dairy I felt so overwhelmed. And now, apparently, it doesn't even warrant inclusion in my breastfeeding story!

Anyway- my ideal date night is dinner out with my hubby followed by hanging out and talking at a pub. This works best if we can both drink, so rarely happens- particularly now that I am pregnant again. But we have had a few such nights.

Sometimes (again, when I'm not pregnant), we hang out and have beers and talk on our sofa. And that is almost as good.

Now if I could just figure out how to get that same atmosphere when I'm drinking cranberry and fizzy water.... Its not that I need booze to talk (far from it!) but somehow, it just isn't the same if I'm not having a beer, too. Hubby and I can't figure out why.

KG said...

Date night? What's a date night? *snort* I need to work on that.

As for your breastfeeding story, man, I had MAJOR struggles! I was sore for a good 6 weeks and 90% of my problem was that my kid who was born at 9 and a half lbs. needed to eat CONSTANTLY. This resulted in constant suckling, constant soreness, etc. I had to supplement with formula. There was absolutely no way in hell I could sit in the chair 24 hours a day as required to keep him going. I ended up nursing him well past the year mark, anyway.

sheSaidC2 said...

wow you changed the look of the blog! Since I read in a reader I just noticed :)

Perfect date? dinner at a nice restaurant and then dancing and then coffee (you know in a perfect world where that would not keep me up, or that would not matter :) - and you know if marc would actually go dancing with me...

But this Sunday my mother's day gift is coming through, we are going to lunch and then to the opera Carmen... how grown up! really the perfect date is something that feels special and grown up at this point :)

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