Would you have gone to Mass?

Just looking for opinions on this.

I gave birth 12 weeks ago, baby finally was able to get her shots on Thursday. My husband and toddler went on a little trip and got back Saturday afternoon. Since my husband is working today (not out of choice) I mentioned going Saturday evening but he said we could just go Sunday morning.

Baby sleeps terribly at night and I accidentally sleep in. Husband sleeps in accidentally with toddler. Husband says no worries, there’s always evening Mass. we have just moved to the area, and come to find the ONLY Sunday evening Mass near us is 30 min away at 5 pm.

Husband goes to work. I take my toddler to nap at 2:30. He normally falls asleep by 3:00. Today, he tantrums until he passes out at 4:15. Husband comes home at 4:30. At this point, I am absolutely exhausted and suggest that we may be exempt because we have an infant to care for and our toddler literally just spent almost two hours fighting sleep and waking him up would be really tough. Husband thinks he’s going to fall asleep on the way there again and thinks getting there late is better than not at all. So, we pack everyone up and my toddler is inconsolable. He tantrums in the car screaming nearly the entire way there as I am in the backseat trying to calm him. Luckily the baby falls asleep. We get there thirty minutes late.

At Mass, baby wants to nurse and I miss communion. I wasn’t sure if I could nurse and receive at the same time, so I just waited until she was done but unfortunately they were finished with communion. I ask my husband if he received communion and he said he did not because he felt guilty that we had got there so late. At this point I start crying. I’m sleep deprived, exhausted from all the tantrums and adjusting to managing two kids, we’ve driven all the way over, were late, and neither of us received communion. On the way back, my baby is the one crying all the way home as I am in the backseat trying to console her.

I’m not sure if going to Mass was the right call. I know you can be excused if you’re caring for an infant. But you have to go eventually right? If I could do it all over again I would have insisted on going Saturday evening. At this point I’m really drained and overwhelmed but everyone says to compare it to whether or not you would go to work… yes I have to go to work, they don’t care that my kids tired or I have a baby so I don’t know how to use that as a gauge on whether or not we can skip Mass. I a little disappointed because this was baby’s first Mass as we were waiting for her shots and it went so poorly.