So Far So Good
Friday, September 6th, 2013From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory started daycare this week. After a reasonably smooth transition period last week, this was the first week he stayed full days. After the first day, I have to admit, I doubted our well-reasoned and over-analyzed decision to move him from a sitter to a child development center. He had a terrible time napping the first day, and only slept for a total of 1.5 hours over-all. As a result, when his daddy picked him up at the end of the day, he fell asleep in his car seat. Then, when we woke him up to eat his dinner and get ready for bed, he cried the entire time. I know he was simply overtired, but it was still very hard to watch him so upset. And, from a purely selfish perspective, it was hard to spend the short window of time I saw him that day fighting an exhausted child… especially when I was used to playing with him for a few special moments each evening.
The only saving grace that first night was reading the notes from his teachers and knowing that he was all smiles all day long. I also spoke with his teachers at two different times during the day because they had questions about his schedule and how they should handle certain things that they had encountered during the day. I was pleased to see them so willing to reach out and proactively seek my input. It helped put me at ease — somewhat.
In an effort to calm myself a bit, I wrote out slightly more detailed instructions and spent a little longer during drop-off talking with his teacher. I’m not certain if it was necessary, but his second day went far more smoothly. He napped just over an hour in the morning and in the afternoon. He was happy throughout the day, and even remained in good spirits when he and his daddy arrived home. There were far more smiles involved that evening. I’m hoping it’s a harbinger of things to come.