Mr. X left on Sunday, and he'll be back on Thursday with our little boy. I can't believe it's really happening!
The baby is sleeping, so I should run and jump into bed myself in a minute. My mother-in-law is here to help me while Mr. X is gone, and the other day we needed to go to the grocery store, where I had my first public terrible-mother moment. ]The baby cried the whole way there. I grabbed a cart and put her infant seat in it, and she immediately stopped crying once the cart was rolling across the pavement.
She was happy halfway through the store, and then started wailing (I think it was a combination wet-diaper and hunger situation). I didn't know what to do! We had two carts because I wasn't sure how to put the infant seat in the front part of a cart, so we had a baby cart and a grocery cart. I didn't want to take her out of the seat and hold her with one hand while I pushed the cart with the other, because that just didn't seem safe. After a minute or two that seemed like hours, I stopped in an aisle and took her out of the seat to calm her down while my MIL ran to other aisles to pick up items.
Finally, we just had a couple of last things to pick up (bread and milk), so I reluctantly put the baby back in the seat, where she immediately started crying again. I ran through to grab the bread and milk as fast as I could, but then my MIL remembered one more item, so we went across the store. Fortunately, most people were very friendly, probably because they saw how tiny the baby is and how tired I look (and how stressed I was that the baby was crying)! But as I was waiting in that last aisle, a young woman came over to me and asked me to let her hold the baby and comfort her. She seemed very sweet and genuinely distressed that the baby was crying, but I didn't want to let a stranger in the grocery store hold my new baby! And I felt just terrible because I felt like I'm this awful, heartless mom who just lets her baby cry in the shopping cart to the point that perfect strangers beg her to let them take care of the baby because they'd clearly do a better job.
Right after that, we got into the checkout line and I did take her back out of the seat and held her until we left--actually, she was so calm by then that I did just hold her with one hand and steer the cart back to the car with the other. She cried as soon as I put her in the car seat, but as soon as the car started moving and I put some static on the radio, she fell asleep.
Next time, I think I'll probably abandon the cart and go out to the car to try to calm the baby down. But, hey, at least I've had my first bad-mom moment in public only three weeks in, so I won't have to dread it!
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4 comments:
I fail to see the bad mom moment here. ;) All babies have screaming moments in stores and nearly everyone knows that. (My thought was 'what an annoying, rude woman to make you feel like that!') This happens to everyone, don't feel bad!
I usually end up holding the baby on one side and dragging the cart behind me with the other arm. It's easier than pushing. Only when the baby got a little bigger and more sturdy to hold though. When she was small, I just rushed through the store while she yelled. Actually, sometimes my rushing would lull her back to sleep.
you are definitely not a bad mom!!!! babies cry!
i'm so excited for you! i can't imagine having TWO babies!!! god bless all of you!
awww, you're too hard on yourself!! newborn babies can't help crying!! It would be different if your 4 yr old was throwing a fit and you lost control, but a newborn? she's perfect no matter what she does, as is the mother :)
Does it kill you that static is what soothes her, with your love of music? Haha, I'll probably be forcing classical music on my newborn, and they'll be screaming for static :)
Put her in the Moby when you go to the grocery store. That's what I do with John Paul and he loves it. He usually falls asleep :)
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