Reality Check

Before Miller was born, I had a lot of little fantasies in my head of how things were going to be. I knew things wouldn't be perfect and I knew she would cry, but I thought Fred and I were going to sail through this whole newborn thing like the champion parents we are.

For those of you who don't know, Fred is a bit of a baby whisperer. You can usually hand him a crying baby and the baby will stop crying immediately. It used to make me feel like a jerk when this happened with other people's babies, but I thought it sure would come in handy with Miller. Well, guess what? Apparently she is immune to both Fred's baby-whispering powers and my super-mommy skills and sometimes, the kid just won't stop crying!

Before she was born, I pictured Fred, me, and Miller enjoying evening strolls with Pickles and Rocky each night and her sleeping quietly in our arms while we watched educational television programming The Bachelor Pad and Jersey Shore.

Here is a list of things I wasn't prepared for....

1. the stupid NICU

2. thrush AND a cold all before 4 weeks

3. FIVE straight hours of crying

4. stroller hatred (We have now discovered we CAN walk the dogs, but only if Miller is in the Baby Bjorn. The stroller pretty much makes her scream bloody murder.)

5. going to the grocery store by myself (I accidentally stole some chicken that was hiding under Miller's car seat, because I was so distracted by her crying which turned me into that lady with the crying baby in the grocery store. I didn't discover the chicken until we were getting in the car and there was no way I was going back in! Judge me if you will.)

6. Starbucks drive-thru embarrassment (Apparently babies who are perfectly calm in the car will turn into wailing banshees once your car stops in a drive-thru with 4 other cars in front of you and behind you. There was no way out. And I wanted my Frappucino! The nice man at the window is now my BFF after telling me he was sure I was a great mom AND that I didn't look like I had just had a baby. And he said Miller'e name was beautiful. I was so distracted and embarrassed that I didn't even tip him!)

So, needless to say, things haven't gone exactly as planned. But Saturday night, I got a little taste of the perfect parenting bliss I had imagined. Instead of looking like this:

Miller looked like this:

(excuse the blue swaddler, it was a hand-me-down.)

Fred made a yummy dinner that looked like this:

And our TV looked like this (for several hours!):

And our dogs did this:

And that was enough to get me through the week! (I think...it's only Tuesday.)