The teleconference was scheduled for 1:15pm. An ideal time, I thought. The baby will be sleeping, I thought. I don’t have to arrange care, I thought.
In my perfectly planned day we would spend the morning with my friend and her kids, followed by a visit to Nanny’s shop. Enough play and excitement to lure a reluctant sleeper into an ideally timed nap. He would fall asleep in the car on the way home and I would have ample time to prepare, attend the meeting and finalise any resulting work. Baby E would would wake at 2:30 on the dot. A quick snack and a nappy change before picking up Master I from school.
That is not what happened.
This is what happened.
We headed over for our play. My gorgeous friend served home-made sesame seed snaps and kiwi fruit. I had brought Baby E milk arrowroot biscuits, rice wheels and a token banana. You can guess whose morning tea received the most attention.
After a truly lovely morning, even if I was feeling lunch box mummy guilt, we headed over to Nanny’s shop. I eyed the rear vision mirror, making sure that there was no signs of baby E nodding off before I needed him too. The tell-tale smell wafting into the front seat meant that there was no chance of that. I pulled into a car-park and searched frantically for a nappy. I don’t carry a nappy bag any more – there comes a time when you know what you need and when you need it. I thought that time was when my baby was nearly two. I was wrong. I was cursing myself for travelling light. But I did not panic as I always have a few spare nappies and wipes in the car. Unfortunately I had not checked those supplies for some time. I found a solitary nappy that was about three sizes too small and one very sad looking baby wipe.
Once upon a time I had a nicely set up change area in the boot of the car. It has since been taken over by a tricycle, a bicycle and six soccer balls. As I attempted to find a little space in the crowded boot, those balls rolled out of the car and onto the busy road. With a smelly toddler under one arm and fearing what would happen at soccer training, I ran down the road to retrieve them. All balls accounted for, I went to change baby E and quickly realised this was not a one baby wipe situation. After some patchy work with a few stray tissues, I decided it would have to do.
We visited with Nanny and headed home. The long way. No sign of sleep. “Car”, “Car” Baby E sung as we passed traffic. The car as a getting to sleep device was failing badly.
Eventually I gave up and hoped that a favourite Chuggington train set would offer enough distraction as I attended the teleconference. It did not.
The meeting ended just as I needed to leave to pick up Master I from school. Baby E fell asleep on the way.
Next time, I am getting a baby-sitter. And re-stocking the car.
Oh my, what a day. That sounds so familiar. Hugs to you and getting though all that!
Thanks – I wish I could say it was an extraordinary day but it was pretty much same, same! I must admit, I was almost composing the blog post as it was happening though! Thank goodness for an outlet 🙂
I too recently had an incident involving undersized nappies being the only nappies on hand. Grrrr – the grow too fast!
Today, I filed an international trademark application whilst feeding the baby. Pretty sure I got boobie milk on the forms. Thankfully they only needed to be scanned, not mailed in hard copy #phew.
Hahaha – the things that happen with our little ones! And yes, particularly in the first year, they grow WAY too fast.
Being a working mom is always a struggle. Thanks for being real.
Got a laugh about it, else we’ll cry!
Mums are just amazing – I admire every one of you! And yes, even if it was tough living through it, it definitely makes good material for an amusing blog post!
That’s the redeeming feature of being a mummy blogger 🙂