LO is 4mo and she rules our life. She's a (mostly) benevolent and adorable ruler. But it's getting a bit tiresome nonetheless. I see people out in public with their babies all the time and they seem so much more leisurely than I am. They take them to events or people's houses and just.... live their lives. And the baby goes along for the ride. But how?

Our LO has high sleep needs. Her awake time between naps is 1.5 hrs, if you push it to 2 you'll often have a meltdown on your hands. And she can't sleep out and about. She won't sleep in her carriers anymore, doesn't fall asleep in her car seat if we try to just take her to a restaurant (just whines and starts to cry when she gets tire), and will only occasionally fall asleep in the car (but if she does we can't remove her from said car because taking her carseat out of the base almost always wakes her up-- she is a very light sleeper).

So our going out is limited to 90 minutes (really 75, if you factor in my having to get her unswaddled, changed, and strapped into her car seat in a somewhat gentle manner because she needs a few minutes to just "be" when she wakes up). Which means grocery store, target, brief errands. We can't take her to a restaurant or to events or commit to a birthday party because they all take too long.

I know this is a limited time problem and eventually she'll have longer awake periods and a more predictable schedule... but I'm curious how other people with younger babies handle this. Is our baby just less flexible than others? Or do you just let your kid get overtired and scream? Or is there some trick I don't know to having a baby AND a life at the same time?