I have a 4.5 month old baby. Every other week or so we have had grandparents watch him for a date or something.

He has gotten difficult in recent weeks, once his love for mom and dad blossomed. He will no longer take a bottle when babysat. Several times when I have come to pick him up, he is screaming like he’s on fire and will stop the second I pick him up. My families will detail all they’ve had to do to try and calm him - rocking the car seat in the air, three mile stroller walk, etc - and how he refused to eat and how upset he got in the end.

Things have been hard. We are moving in less than 3 weeks and I’m the stay at home parent so I am working every day to pack. We haven’t been on a ton of dates lately. My husband has been away on business trips so it’s been all mommy and baby.

This week there is an Iron Maiden concert (Thursday) that we got tickets for before we got pregnant. This weekend is also a camping trip up north with my in-laws (Friday-monday). Additionally my favorite band is in town on Wednesday. And...I can’t do any of it. I can’t leave the baby. My husband is upset because he misses me and he feels like we have failed with the baby not being used to grandparents. He says other people can do things and we should have tried harder.

The concert is 2 hours away and the show is 3 hours long so not only is it a 7 hour ordeal not counting dropping off the baby, but I’ll be 2 hours away if the baby needs me and we won’t get home with him til 2am in that case. The cabin is 2.5 hours away so it would be even harder, and if I brought the baby it would be 5 hours spent in the car back and forth and Id not have fun dealing with a cranky baby on a boat. I wanted to make the concert at least work...but now I am just thinking about how difficult it will be for me and its just so unrealistic... But i am so sad because I don’t get to do anything! I don’t know what to do. Not only do I feel so sad to miss this and trapped at home, but I also feel like a failure.

When did you find yourself getting away for decently long daytime events? What about overnight? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I love my baby but he’s very needy and a bad sleeper so I am always constantly caring for him and I’m not doing well mentally and I need a break. Now I get to spend this weekend missing so much fun and all I get to look forward to is watching the baby and getting some packing done. I always thought I would be able to do things and get a babysitter after having a baby, how naive... now I feel like a stupid failure.