So with all the excitement for Boston comes another big milestone in mine, the wife's, and Riley's life; his first sleepover. So while I'm extremely excited to go up and stay the night and then run the race, there is definitely some hesitation on the other end because its the first night Riley wont be with mommy and daddy.
The wife and I are lucky and unlucky at the same time. Because we grew up in the same city, both of our parents still live there and are only separated by a drive time of 4 minutes. Obviously this is good because we can see both sets of grandparents on the same day and not have to travel 2 different days when we want to go home. The bad comes in that if we go see one, we have to go see the other. Especially now with Riley being born, if we go to our hometown and only see one set of grandparents, the other will definitely get mad. So we have to play this the right way without offending one of the grandparents. It was easy when Riley wasn't born and we could drop Thunder off of my parents and then take off without seeing the wife's parents and spending a lot of time with them.
So now here comes the tricky part. Who do we leave Riley with? We have concerns with both. The breakdown goes something like this.
My parents:
They listen to what we say and try to respect how we want to raise Riley. My mom understands that its our baby and we are trying keep him on a schedule. So when we tell my mom its time for Riley's nap, we feel comfortable that she will listen to us and put Riley down for his nap.
The issue comes in that Riley doesn't sleep at my parents house. Even though they have a crib, a swing, a stroller, he just wont sleep there. Maybe he's not comfortable, maybe its my mom walking into the room every second to see if he's ok. Who knows. But he just doesn't sleep there. So we don't want him to not sleep the whole night
The wife's parents:
Ummm, well, where do I start. Let me first say that I love and appreciate my in laws. They are extremely nice and giving to us. Now that the disclaimer is over, here's the deal. The wife's parents think that we don't know what we are doing and only want to do things their way. They wont listen to what we say and they won't care about specific times we want to do things. They'll just dote over Riley and stare at him.
However, with the bad comes the good. Riley sleeps there. He has no problem taking naps and will sleep through the night there.
So what do we do?
Here's what decided. Let's split the days. Sunday morning, we'll drop both Riley and Thunder off at my parents house. My parents will watch Riley until about 7pm Sunday night. This way, they can see him virtually the entire day and then Riley can go to his other grandparents to sleep. It is one of those times that is a benefit that they live so close to each other. It also goes without saying that Thunder will stay at my parents house.
So how do the wife and I feel about all of this? We actually don't know. I've been traveling for work so I'm used to leaving the family. But this is the first time the wife is not going to be putting him to bed and waking up the next morning with him. I know it will be hard on her. For me as well since we'll both be thinking about him the entire night. The wife wanted to come to Boston with me for a few reasons. First, its like her own mini-vacation. She gets to go to another city, sleep in a hotel, pop earplugs in and not hear anything. Then when I wake up for the race, she can go back to sleep and sleep until whenever she wants. After that, she can wake up, go to the hotel gym for a workout, and then meet me after the race. It's perfect for her. Except the fact that she'll be worrying the whole time.
I know at some point every parent has to leave their child for the first time. I guess this way, its only for one night and we can celebrate something while we're there.
Hopefully their won't be any crying from either Riley or his parents on Sunday night.
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