An Adventure in Parenthood

So, yesterday, being Sunday, Fred and I got up and got ready to head to church, baby and all. Well, we didn't quite plan enough extra time to get ourselves and Charlotte ready, so we ended up going to a later mass than usual. No big deal.

First mistake - sitting in the cry room. I was so paranoid about her waking up and screaming to be fed that I didn't want to sit in the main church. Turns out, BAD IDEA. People in cry rooms don't seem to be there to participate in Mass. They are there to chase around their crazy, crying children. Okay, so I understand that sometimes two year olds can be that way, but there were families with MUCH older children running around, up and down out of their seats. That coupled with me trying to keep Charlotte sleeping and not starting at every loud noise someone made it impossible for me to concentrate on the Mass.

We made it all the way to Communion before the inevitable happened and she started to squirm and fuss. By the time we'd received Communion, she was outright screaming. I knew she wanted food and a diaper change; rather than breastfeed and change her in the nook at the back of the room, we bolted for the car. By now she was furious! I whipped out the changing pad and a fresh diaper and changed her in my lap in the back seat. "Not bad," I thought and handed her to Fred so I could finish cleaning up and feed her just enough to pacify her.

Then we heard it - another freshly changed diaper bites the dust (I know better; to wait until after she's been awake a while, but she won't eat if she's wet or dirty). And then we saw it - poop on Fred's Jacket, poop on her cute pink onesie, and poop all over the outside of her diaper. So her fury turned to outrage as I put her back on my lap and stripped her down, but not before Fred closed the car door on her little head (not hard - her head wasn't IN the door, just a little too close to it). As I was cleaning up the poopy diaper, I noticed suddenly that everything was WET as well (everything BUT her diaper...). Finally, I was able to comfort her with a little meal before strapping her, in only her diaper, in the car seat.

Once we were home and she was sleeping, Fred and I looked at each other and just laughed. Next week, I'm leaving him with a bottle of expressed milk and going by myself! We'll try again in a few weeks, but I'm NEVER sitting in a cry room again. The end of the pew in the main church that is next to the cry room door is where we'll plop ourselves next time, allowing for an easy escape if necessary. Charlotte will just have to behave herself.