The Truth About Daycare

Cameron,
You survived your first week of day care! I am glad I didn't blog about it earlier, because yesterday seemed to be the turning point for both of us. You are going to a place that I checked out a long time ago, not far from my office and a bit more reasonably priced than many of the other ones we looked into. I think any place would have been a hard adjustment from Mrs. Cara's, so I am trying to think positively about the progress we have made in just a week's time.

Monday morning was ROUGH. When the three of us arrived (Daddy was so sweet to accompany us!), it was total chaos there. The classroom I thought you were supposed to be in was empty and had apparently been repainted recently. Then we found out that your regular teacher doesn't arrive until 8:00 and prior to that, you are shuffled into the nursery with a different teacher. And of course, there was the crying. You didn't want to be put down with all the strange people and things. It was so hard for us to leave! And it made me feel absolutely terrible that I didn't get to talk with someone and make sure they knew how you behaved and how you like certain things. You were just one of many kids they had to take care of, but of course to us, you are the most important little girl in the world!

Tuesday morning, Daddy wanted to go with us again just to give you a goodbye kiss before we went in. I think it made it worse since you knew where we were and what was about to happen. It also made me feel terrible that you only took a 25 minute nap on Monday and apparently did the same thing on Tuesday. I know it was probably hard to sleep on your new nap mat amidst all those other kids who were out of their routines too. As soon as one wakes up, the teachers have to try to keep them quitely amused and see how long the other ones can sleep. And the weirdest part was that your daily report said that you refused to eat lunch on Tuesday. WHAT?!?! Have you met my child? She EATS.

So Wednesday morning, I was determined to wait after 8:00 to see your real teacher Mrs. Liz. But all of a sudden, there are two more complete strangers in charge of your class. And with me hanging around, you didn't want to eat breakfast or play with anyone else. You just wanted to cling to me and cry. Apparently Mrs. Liz had a plumbing emergency at her house and was running late, so I expressed some of my concerns to the staff there and asked that she call me later.

And thank goodness I called back that afternoon to talk with her. It made me feel so much better to explain my worries (the biggest being your naps) and how to maybe make you feel more comfortable and adjust. She encouraged me that she has been watching many of these kids for a while now, and she could tell that the holidays threw everyone out of their normal routine. She said to be patient and that she knew you would adjust.

Thursday, I was determined to make it a better day no matter what. I dropped you off on time and gave you a quick hug and kiss and left without lingering. You cried, but I am sure you settled down easily shortly after. And today was the same thing. Your teachers have had much better reports the last few days, with notes about how well you have been eating (even though you apparently are going to have to learn to feed yourself with a spoon pretty quickly) and that you have been taking 1.5 hour naps. You still fuss a bit in the afternoons and you seem to know when other kids are getting picked up by their parents that it should be time to leave for you too. Yesterday when I arrived, you were standing right in front of the door blocking another mom and kid from leaving, and you did a little happy dance when I leaned in and said your name.

This is just going to have to become our new normal. I want you to know that we love you so much and wish we had so much more time to spend with you. But soon enough, we will have to let go even more and send you off to school! We are going to make it. I am sure that having Saturday and Sunday at home will completely throw off the routine again, but we are going to make it. And we will work to make sure that the time we DO have at home will be full of fun!