Letting grandma care for my baby for an overnight visit was intended to provide me rest. After all, my daughter was already four months old and I had never been away from her for any length of time. Since my mother had been asking for over a month to keep her for an overnight visit, I could not put it off any longer. After getting all our gear ready for the trek to grandma's, I felt like I needed a vacation. Add to all that the stress of being away from my baby for the first time.

Mom had already purchased some baby items to keep are her home, but she did not have everything necessary for an overnight stay. My mind started going over the possibilities. It would be a good idea to let her use the baby travel system, including the car seat and the seat base. It would need to be installed in her car before we departed. As we all know anything can come up even if you are not planning on going anywhere. The stroller, car seat and base made their way into my vehicle.

Althought my mother did have a play pen which could be used as an overhight crib, my daughter seldom falls asleep in her crib. I usually have to put her in one of my ring slings and wear her around the house until she falls asleep. After she has fallen asleep, I carefully place her in her crib. So, I packed up a ring sling and planned to show my mom how to use it.

During my pregnancy, I had told my mom our our plans for using cloth diapers. Although my mother used cloth diapers for my older brother and sisters, disposable diapers were the clear choice for my infant/toddler years. She thought my decision was like going backwards. She had a hard time understanding how much cloth diapers had improved since her days of diapering me. The overnight trip would require my Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers and was a perfect opportunity to show my mother how simple they were to use. So, in addition to everything else I packed a few cloth diapers and a wet bag and planned to show my mom how to use them.

Packing the minivan took so long it was already time to leave when I was done,even though I needed a rest. I lectured my mom for almost two hours going over all that I wanted to tell her about my daughter. When she asked me if I thought she had ever taken care of a baby, I realized it was time to leave. I wanted to make the overnight visit easy on my baby and my mom. I then went back home to prepare for my dinner date with my husband. I could not stop thinking about my little girl and the resulting stress had me calling my mother almost ten times in the first two hours. The visit went very well and all my worry was for naught. My little one finally slept through the night while my mother thoroughly enjoyed taking care of a baby.