Last night, Chris and I went out together for the first time since Kaia’s birth. He had gone out a few times during the day to meet up with friends and colleagues, and we’d had visitors come over to see the baby, but we had not gone out to do anything fun at all since her arrival. Months ago, Chris had booked us tickets to see the comedian Hasan Minhaj at Radio City Music Hall for tonight. He said that he thought this time frame for going out would be good in terms of getting our routine settled with the baby, and in the end, he was right: we were in a routine and did feel pretty comfortable with her. Plus, we just had a new night nurse start with us who was referred from our last night nurse, who had to leave for another booked client, and she agreed to come a few hours early to watch and care for the baby.

Chris asked if I had any separation anxiety, and I immediately said no. I mean, we were only going to be out for a few hours, and so it didn’t really feel like true “separation” just yet. I think it would be a harder thing and really feel like separation if I were away from our baby for the full day at an office, or worse, on an overnight or multiple night work trip.

The night was amazing as expected: Hasan even talked about some things that hit close to home, such as infertility, starting a family, sucking snot of his baby girl’s nose, and protectiveness over his family. It felt really good to get out of the house and out of the feeding/pumping schedule we’ve been locked into and actually do something fun, something we always did before the baby came. We may end up having this be a semi-regular thing assuming we can find help, as well.