things to do as a couple before baby

If you have a baby then this list will resonate with you in a very real way. If you are pregnant then this list may scare you a little and I'm sorry but I come to you with only the best of intentions. I am only looking out for you and wanting you to enjoy the last bit of selfishness you will ever get to have. I'm only being slightly sarcastic. As you do each of these activities (hopefully numerous times) you will need to make a mental note of how good it felt and take stock in the wonderfulness of it. 

1. Sleep in and then when you wake up just lay in bed until you can't lay there anymore. Once baby is here there is little sleeping which you already know. What I'm saying is relish in it. Sit in the quiet once you awake and enjoy it. Life now needs no alarm clock because the first to get up is Jack and it is almost always with a wail and not with a coo. Not the best way to start each day.

2. After you lay in your quiet take your precious time getting dressed. Trying to get dressed with a baby around is sooooo not easy. Those little creatures just love to cry when you need them not to cry. What always seems to happen when Jack was a baby is that he would cry when I tried to get ready so I would have to hurry. Now that he is a toddler he gets into everything while I'm trying to get ready. It is a constant early battle of no's and stop's in the wee hours. Not cool.

3. Eat inside your house in peace. Jack always knew when we were eating and would cry so we would have to end up eating in shifts which meant one of us was getting left with cold food. Now that he eats what we eat he still wants what is on our plate and will beg for bites. 

4.  Eat out at a nice restaurant with your spouse. The night before my scheduled c-section Jeremy and I went out for a steak dinner. I'm so glad we did that and I look back on that night fondly. Babies make huge messes so nice restaurants really aren't an option for awhile. Jack loves to act like a crazy child in a restaurant so not only is there a mess but he gets so loud. I spend most of my time feeding him my food, cleaning food off the floor, trying to keep him entertained, and keeping him away from things he will throw in the floor.

5. Go out on a spontaneous date. Going out on a date now takes so much planning that it almost feels not worth it at times. Plus we run into the issue of wanting to see Jack as much as possible when we can because he is in daycare more than we like.

6. Watch a movie in your bed. I have to say that now that Jack is 16 months old this aspect is starting to come back into our lives but not as often as we both would like. We have passed on several movie nights for sleep. Sleep wins against most things.

7. Buy yourself something trivial you really want. After baby, if you have any leftover money, you will want to spend it on your sweet bundle of joy. The days of buying trivial things is O.V.E.R. 

8. Sit down and have a conversation about yourselves. Baby poop will become a huge topic of conversation once the poop machine arrives. You will find yourselves analyzing each poop. As a couple your life will focus around your little one and he or she will undoubtedly become the only thing you talk about.

9. Get together with friends.  Life after baby isn't like How I Met Your Mother. You will not be spending your time hanging out at the local bar with your buddies. If you are lucky you will get a few dinners out with friends and hopefully several visits in which they give you a break where you can catch a shower and (gasp) a nap.

10. Spend a whole day just being lazy together. It is one of the things I miss the most. Before Jack we might would spend a whole day in bed just relaxing. We would even order a pizza to eat in bed. Usually we would be nursing a hangover. Those days are over and I'm okay with that but I'm still happy we had that time.