Mama in the City

We hadn't really talked about the how we we were getting home from the hospital once we had our baby. We don't own a car and were used to walking around town or taking taxis when we needed. Once in awhile we rented a car to go out of town and that was the end to the transportation story. It worked out perfectly and we never had an issue until it came time to bring home baby Ben.

I really hadn't given much thought to how my baby was to get home. Obviously I had thought strolling the city after giving birth would be high on my priority list or maybe a vehicle would just appear with a proper fitting car seat already installed. However, surprisingly neither of these became an option when it was time to go home. My husband really wanted to walk home with the baby and push him in our new stroller. The idea sounded horrendous and exhausting to me and I vetoed it right away. Our compromise was for me to get in a taxi and for him to stroll with Ben home.

The mixture of being separated from my baby for the very first time and the huge waves of post partum hormones left me a slobbering mess in the back of the taxi. Luckily the cab driver did not talk to me which was perfect. I arrived back at our condo and was so happy to see my oldest sister standing out front waiting for me. It was so anti climatic to just come home all alone and it was such a nice surprise to see someone waiting for me.

A few minutes behind me was my husband and he really loved his walk home with the baby. It was the perfect sunny fall day and the baby was swaddled and having his first breaths of outdoor air. Soon they were home and I was smooching my baby and relaxing on the couch with my new family. The thing my husband didn't tell me, until quite a while later, was that he lost the baby in the condo elevator. It wasn't his fault but my baby still rode the elevators alone on his big arrival home. The elevator door had been malfunctioning and was not shutting; as they waited inside the elevator waiting to go up my husband stepped out of the elevator to see if it was out of service. At that exact second the elevator door finally closed taking the baby up to the tenth floor alone.

With some quick thinking he raced in the second elevator trying to race up to the tenth floor, hopefully arriving just in time to meet the elevator containing our baby. Somehow things aligned and it actually worked out that his elevator door opened just as the other one was going to close. He pulled out the stroller and continued to walk to our front door where I was anxiously waiting to get my hands on that newborn!

When he finally decided to tell me this story I didn't freak out but once in awhile I do hold it over his head. In the most loving way. With that I am wishing him a 'Happy Father's Day' as Benjamin's Dad