My First Day at Day Care

Yes, I say MY first day at day care because I needed to settle and get adjusted even more than she did!  After tossing around various options for JSLs daycare, we finally landed on the old faithful day care approach, Bright Horizons!   We discussed DLs mom coming to live with us, we explored the nanny concept and even looked into home day care, but we made the decision (at this point anyway) to enroll her in the day care at my job.  Everything about the facility is focused on education & development where I have no doubt she will flourish!  This decision certainly ain't cheap, but another sacrifice we had to make as parents.  So, updates on my latest bag purchase or cute little outfit selection will be few!  (sad face)

Yes, this came with some pros and cons since my drive to work is an hour commute and a 60 mile drive, so just thinking of doing this everyday with precious cargo on board was a little unsettling to me.  Not to mention that now it will become a little more difficult to participate in the after hours happy hours that we as co-workers sometimes do.

But nonetheless, I enjoyed every morning and evening drop off and pick up of my baby girl.  She only lasts about the first 15 minutes of our ride before she's completely knocked out!

Here's her welcome sign in her classroom

Mommy dropping her off!  She has that look like she's say, "Mom, get over it already"!

Here's her teacher, Ms. Carrie

Her personal diaper cubby.  I took pictures of everything they had up with her name on it!  LOL

So after her first week, it was certainly bittersweet!  I enjoy the fact that she receives sensory and motor skills development on a daily basis and the fact that she's able to interact with other children as well, but the downside was that she still needed to get adjusted herself.  On days 1 - 3 of her first week, she only slept a max of 20 minutes each naptime because she still looks around trying to figure out where she is.  When I came to visit her on my lunch break Monday, her eyes were swollen because she was SO sleepy!  And she looked at me as if she was saying, "Mom, can we just go home so I can get some sleep!"  Or maybe that was my interpretation!  

So needless to say, she is out like a light when we get home.  I literally have to wake her to eat and change her diaper and then put her back to sleep.  Which in itself is bittersweet because yes, my evenings are free, but bitter that I don't have playtime with my baby girl!

I'm confident it will all settle soon and we all will adjust to our new lifestyle!