Posts Tagged ‘day care’

Juggling

Friday, September 13th, 2013

From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory and his daddy had some extra one-on-one time this week as I ventured out of town for my first overnight business trip since Rory was born. Luckily, my travel plans ended up being fairly simple—I flew out on Wednesday night for an all-day Thursday meeting and returned home very late on Thursday night. I had originally been scheduled to be in three states in two days for unrelated matters, so the single destination trip was a welcome—albeit last-minute—change.

Although the travel itself can be a little grueling, the logistics of getting myself to the airport on-time pale in comparison to making certain that everything is in order on the home front before heading out. Rory is still breastfeeding, so that means making certain we have enough frozen milk to sustain him in my absence. It also means that I needed to plot out how to fit in sufficient breaks to my schedule in order to remain physically comfortable during my all-day meeting (and hopefully be able to bring some fresh milk home for him, too).

Then there was the matter of making sure the morning drop-off routine went smoothly at daycare. He’s just finishing up his second week at daycare, and I am usually the one who handles the morning drop-off. His daddy is perfectly capable—it just meant we both needed to take the time to write out everything he needed to remember to do: bottles into the fridge, communication sheet into the folder, time for the next bottle onto the whiteboard, etc.

Finally, we had to talk through all the things I tend to do each evening to recap how to get things ready all-over again the next day since I was going be gone for two full evening routines.

Although it is no fun to be away from home for a night, I had a much easier time of it than I was expecting. I am extremely fortunate to have such a good teammate who had no problem picking up the added responsibility for a few days. We both juggle every day to balance the competing demands of work and parenting, but, so far, we’re managing. And that feels pretty good.

Preparing for Transition

Friday, August 16th, 2013

From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory starts daycare in a little more than two weeks. We have been very fortunate to have a sitter for him over the summer, but have opted for the slightly more affordable approach for long-term. Of course, as his time with his sitter draws to a close, we are second-guessing that decision. Mostly because this change is coming right as I am finally settling in to a working-mom routine.

This week, I called to schedule our orientation session and transition period with the head teacher in his new classroom. She rattled off a list of all the things I should be collecting, such as labels, extra sheets, extra outfits, etc., to bring with Rory on his first day. I had a moment of sheer anxiety thinking about the gargantuan effort that will be involved in getting both of us out the door in the morning and dropping him off at his new child development center on my way to the office.

I am also worried that Rory’s switch to daycare will coincide with his developing stranger anxiety. I see how excited he is in the morning when his sitter arrives, and I feel terrible about that. To date, he has been very laid back with just about everyone he meets. I hope that he is receptive to his new caregivers and that he is able to adjust quickly. We’ll be leaving him for a few hours a day at first to help transition, but I wish I’d built in a little more time to be able to help him make the switch.

I’m hoping that this is yet another time where my anxiety is worse than the reality. Or perhaps the task of labeling all of his clothes will keep me occupied enough to stop stressing. . .

Childcare Conundrum

Friday, March 15th, 2013

From Friday Mom – Erin:
The halfway point of my maternity leave is fast approaching. I am planning to return to my job as an attorney in early June. I work for a large law firm in a large East Coast city. From a financial perspective, my staying home is really not an option, so our plan has always been for me to return to work full-time. Deciding to return to work has been the easy part—figuring out how to get childcare is a different story.

My husband and I have a house within the city limits. Although living in the city is great for minimizing my commute, living in the city also means that childcare options for an infant are extremely limited. I had always figured we would end up needing a nanny or a nanny-share (where two couples share a nanny between the two families, thus reducing the cost to each).

Last fall, we decided to look into our daycare options, just in case. We quickly learned that the waitlists for infant classes were borderline insane. I checked with one school this week, and we are eighteenth on the list for a class of nine infants. I have e-mails outstanding to check on our status at the other two schools we applied to. Apparently women put their names on lists the moment they learned they were pregnant. I wish I’d realized that sooner. . .

Luckily, we met with a very nice couple last weekend. They are expecting their son in April and we are in the process of following up with them to discuss moving forward with a nanny share. We spent Saturday afternoon chatting with them about what we all wanted in a nanny and discussing our collective ideas on how to go about selecting a nanny. While there is still a lot to do before we can say that we’ve got things squared away, taking that initial step made me feel like we had at least made some progress. Now I am just crossing my fingers that the rest of the process goes as smoothly.

It gets easier

Friday, September 11th, 2009

There’s a chill in the air. The boys in pinstripes pulled it together and are in the hunt for the pennant. Our jackets have come out of the back of the closet. It must be time for fall.

I can’t write about back to school. My son isn’t old enough for school yet and his routine in going to daycare hasn’t changed. But this time of year reminds me of bringing the little guy to daycare for the first time. It was traumatic – and the trauma was all mine.

I was fortunate enough to spend 5 months at home with my son. You could probably count on one hand the number of hours that we had spent apart. When I went back to work, we would be away from each other at least 10 hours at a time. Over the course of my last month home, I planned to “transition” him into daycare and, by that, I really meant break myself in.

I made my husband come the first time I dropped our son off. We spent WAY too much time lovingly making up his crib, folding his spare clothes and putting his bottles in the fridge. After an hour away, I started getting twitchy and begged my husband to bring me back so we could reclaim our son.

My first day doing the drop off solo, I fought back tears the entire time, jaw quivering when I had to hand my baby over to the strangers who would be watching him. By the time I hit the car, I broke down into hysterical sobs. It took all my self control not to run back into the building and abduct my son.

I indulged the hysterics for a few minutes before pulling myself together. I went to my favorite diner for breakfast. I forced myself to keep busy. That lasted a little over 3 hours before I went racing back to daycare to reclaim my kid.

Those first days were the worst. In the ones that followed, the tears stopped, the lump in my throat got smaller and I could hand my son off to his caretakers with a genuine smile. There are still days where it’s hard to leave him in the morning, knowing that he’ll be spending virtually all of his waking hours with someone else. The time apart really does make us enjoy the time together even more.

So to those moms and dads who may be bringing their little ones to daycare or school for the first time this week, just remember, it gets easier.