02 Apr The First Nanny

The thought of having your very own baby is one of the most exciting times in a woman’s life. I’ll finally have this sweet, soft little person that’s mine all mine! Someone to share the days with and take along to all of the fun things I do. When you announce to friends and family that you’re expecting, they don’t hesitate to warn you that your life is about to change, for the better of course, but that life as you knew it certainly won’t be the same again. And then there’s the 40 weeks of pregnancy. During this time, you become somewhat more uncomfortable as the months tick by, and the excitement of the surprise that is soon to arrive is a distraction in itself, overall, life as we know it can still be enjoyed, with only the 2 of us to consider. The fourth trimester is spent swooning over this little miracle, constantly staring at this perfect little human you created. You’re so tired and overwhelmed with so many different emotions that you couldn’t possibly even consider doing anything other than feeding, sleeping and cuddling. However, the time soon comes (usually around the 3 month mark) when friends start extending the dinner party invite again, or it’s time to return to work, or you are missing parts of your old life and craving a date night, but whatever the reason, the word ‘nanny’ seems to keep rearing its frightening voice in your head.

Well for me, this time came at the 3 month mark whilst we were in Canada on vacation. We have never left our baby boy with anyone other than each other and I’ve never been away from him for longer than 1-2 hours, in which he stays with his dad.

At first, we were in Canada staying in an Airbnb with an abundance of restaurants literally at our doorstep, and those who know me well, know that my absolute favourite thing to do is wine and dine, and there has been no wining and dining since I gave birth. Luckily enough though, at the time our baby napped from approximately 6-7:30pm, and then bedtime was at roughly 9pm – this was perfect for us because we could still enjoy an early dinner outing with a sweet sleeping baby in tow. We tried this twice, but we found that the restaurants and wine bars that we tend to gravitate towards are far too intimate to fit our ‘rather large’ stroller, and if he did happen to wake up during this time, I felt like the restaurant was probably a little too overwhelming for him.  After testing the waters though, I came to the conclusion that a restaurant is no place for a baby. But then I faced with that burning question, “who would I possibly leave him with?”… “We are on vacation in a foreign country where we don’t know or trust anyone”… “But we’ve been discussing this vacation since before our baby was even born!”, the time had come, but I wasn’t ready to leave with him with a sitter. Will I ever be ‘ready’? It’s a similar feeling to when you are actually discussing the idea of starting a family – you’re never actually ready for it. We arrived home to the United States and booked our first sitter for New Year’s Eve. Our sitter was warm, knowledgeable and assured us that our baby was safe and sound, asleep in his crib, and to enjoy our couple of hours out seeing in the new year. Perhaps you just need to take the leap.