Date Night

In the PBE, I don't think we ever quite realised just how precious our time together was. Many people had told us to make the most of it, so in the last few months we did go to the cinema more and out on random dates, but it wasn't until Jake arrived that you find out how much time he eats up. Even when he's asleep on an evening, we're either so tired that we just want to sit down or we're making up the next batch of bottles or doing laundry. You spend time together, but not quality time together.

This is why Tuesday of this week was a momentous occasion (beyond being Jake's 5 week birthday). My mum made us an incredibly generous offer to come up to Leeds every Tuesday and spend the day with Jake freeing us up to go out. I feel this is a win win situation as it must be hard on my parents (and indeed Kelsey's folks) as Milton Keynes is a long way away so their Jake time is limited. It also meant that on Tuesday afternoon Kelsey had a bit of respite to go into town and meet a friend which is always surprisingly energising. When I came home, we went straight out on our first date night. We had heard stories from other people about how they could only bear 40 minutes on their first time leaving the baby alone, but I think the combination of absolute faith in my mum's ability to care for Jake and the fact that we've made it a point to give each other time away from the baby meant that we could go to the pub at the top of the road and have a relaxed 2 hour dinner without feeling guilty. Indeed, the only time pressure that brought us home was making sure that my mum could drive home in plenty of time rather than panicking if Jake was ok.

The date night highlighted a couple of things for us. Firstly, we can live up to our own expectations of being relaxed enough to let other people care for Jake. Secondly, that it's important to have that touch-base time between us which we've tried to incorporate a little each day either through cuddling more whilst watching a movie or chatting to each other during Jake's naps. Lastly, that having a baby changes everything in your life and whilst you sometimes pine for the PBE, we'd rather have him in our lives and find different ways to do the things that we like.