Date Night

Thursday was our very first date night since having Alfie and the very first time I have left him.  We made the decision last week to have a date night this week as we wanted to see the Inbetweeners film.  I asked my friend, Batman (obviously her real name is Robyn…) to babysit for us as she’s looked after her nephew and niece from being tiny baby’s and I trust her completely.  She couldn’t wait to babysit, I on the other hand was slightly apprehensive about the whole thing.

I spent Thursday day time with Alfie close to me all day, knowing that later on I had to leave him with someone else.  We went out for a coffee with my sister, niece, sister in law and nephew while hubby was at work.  When hubby came home, we went shopping to buy Alfie some new vests and a couple of outfits (he’s growing too fast!).  I bought myself a red hair colour too but that’s another story.  Alfie and I spent the afternoon playing and while he napped I cleaned and then he’d eat and play some more.  I told Batman that hubby would pick her up at 7:30 and I would have Alfie all sorted by this time.  I had a plan.

At 6:00pm I bathed Alfie and then fed him and at 7:00pm he was ready for bed.  I stayed with him until he fell asleep.  If he’d have woken up I don’t think I could have left the house.  He was sound asleep by the time we left at 8:00pm.  I gave Batman a run-down of instructions should he wake/get upset/if she needed us.  She had no credit on her mobile so she wouldn’t be able to text me, I told her she should use our landline to call me if she needed me.  So we were off, after checking on Alfie again.  We arrived at the cinema and parking as usual was a nightmare!  Part of me hoped we’d not get parked and have to go home.  I was missing my baby.  We got parked and went into the cinema.  It was packed.

The film, as I expected was hilarious and I laughed a lot although Alfie was in the back of my mind the whole time.  I couldn’t completely relax.  I checked my phone signal constantly just in case Batman was trying to reach me for whatever reason.  Each time I checked, my phone signal was full and there were no signs of Batman needing or wanting to contact me.  It was lovely to have some time alone with hubby although because we were at the cinema we didn’t really talk apart from the car journey there and back.  I think the next time we have a date night we’re going to possibly go for drinks with friends for an hour that way we can talk and have fun together.  When the film finished I was the first person out of my seat and out of screen 8.  Alan took the long way home which I questioned.  I think he was trying to test me.  All I wanted to do was go home.

We got home and I went straight upstairs to check on Alfie.  He was sound asleep, snoring lightly.  Beautiful.  I came downstairs and talked to Batman to see how he’d been.  The ignorant neighbours had been doing DIY in their house and woke him up a couple of times but aside from that, he’d been as good as gold.  He didn’t even notice I wasn’t there.  I wasn’t sure if I was happy about this or not.  I’m still not sure today.  I had a catch up with Batman before hubby took her home at 11:30pm.  When hubby got home we went to up to bed because we were up early Friday morning and quite frankly, I just wanted to be close to my baby.

So, I managed to leave Alfie.  Was it easy? Hell no!  Do I want to do it again? Eventually.  Will it be any time soon? Probably not.  I think on hubby’s next day off from work, we’ll have a lovely family day out and then when Alfie is in bed we’ll have a lovely dinner at the table together where we can catch up and spend some time together that doesn’t involve the tele, laptop or our phones [best make sure it’s not a soap night then!]